There's a black and white crow on the back of a two toned sheep   in a field of broken yellow stalks   below looming cliffs   high above the plain little grey houses   blend with giant jagged boulders   and pale weathered stumps   life in the ghost of the bush   wind whips the acacias and strange forked palms   that cluster around the water hole   suddenly, out of the blowing sand   a milk-white camel appears   turbaned rider, blue robe billowing,    bounces with the shambling trot   wears a sword and a rifle on his back   and hanging from his neck a transistor radio   you blink and like ghosts, they're gone   under the wan disk of sand-masked sun, a woman grins;   spits expertly into the path of a struggling black beetle six feet away   hoists her water bucket onto her head and strides off up the trail      Sun a steel ball glowing   behind endless blowing sand   Sun a steel ball glowing   dust of fallen empires slowly flowing through my hands   Use me while you can      Pearl held in black fingers   is the moon behind dry trees   Pearl held in black fingers   Bird inside the rib cage is beating to be free   Use me while you can      I've had breakfast in New Orleans, dinner in Timbuktu   I've lived as a stranger in my own house too   Dark hand waves in lamplight   Cowrie shell patterns change   And nothing will be the same again      Bullet in a sand storm   Looking for a place to land   Bullet in a sand storm   Full heart beats an empty one   In the deck they dealt to man   Use me while you can   Use me while you can