Silver Lining

A marathon of a drive
beyond mni wak’áŋ
across Dakota plains

The prize?
Your face
behind scratched plexiglass
And your voice
edged with static
close to my ear

Awkward at first
No privacy permitted
No touch
No breathing-in
the fragrance of sandalwood
on your body

But I will be satisfied, my love
with your face
and your voice

And hearing you impart
how in the bleakness
of all you’re enduring
I am your
silver lining

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 20, 2024
• Adnan and the Winged Heart
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 13, 2024
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 12, 2024
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 8, 2024
• Summer’s End
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ September 21, 2024
• Ghosts
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ June 27, 2024
• Undeniably Real
• Sweet Surrender
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ March 1, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ February 21, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ February 7, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ January 16, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ December 8, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ December 3, 2023
• Aglow
• October Afternoon
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ October 1, 2023
• September Garden
• Like a Lotus Flower
• In the Stillness and Silence of This Present Moment
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ June 4, 2023
• The Paradise We’ll Make
• Undone
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ February 14, 2023
• Allow Everything to Rest Right Now
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ January 16, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ January 4, 2023
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ August 25, 2022
• When Sorrow Comes
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ November 25, 2021
• Just One Wish
• Blue Yonder
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ June 29, 2021
• Spring . . . Within and Beyond (2021)
• What We Crave
• Where You Take Me
• Skylight
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ January 30, 2021
• November Musings
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ November 18, 2020
• Out and About ~ Spring 2020
• The Landscape Is a Mirror
• Adnan in Morning Light
• It’s You
• Family Time in Guruk . . . and Glimpses of Somaliland
• Somalia Bound
• My Love, “Return to the Root of the Root of Your Own Soul”
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ July 14, 2019
• Adnan . . . Amidst Mississippi Reflections and Forest Green
• Adnan . . . with Sunset Reflections and Jet Trail
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ April 16, 2019
• Saaxiib Qurux Badan ~ March 29, 2019

Words and images: Michael J. Bayly. (All photos taken on Saturday, September 27, 2025; except photo 2 which was taken on Friday, December 8, 2023.)