Desert Visions (First Set, Part 1)

Author: Stephen W. Cote

The most beautiful place

- painted out of nothing

shaped out of sandy mountains

Our war wagons rumble humble tunes

- five tons and ten no ones

all alone and forgotten in the war zone

Hot, hot, moments of time

- melting me away - drink water

the sulfur and quake of the ground are everything

Life living in the lifeless land

- and leave it to "Arch" to kill it

a parade of fools, we held a funeral, burying it

All there is, all that can be in this unlikely paradise

- I dreamed as my mind left

yet I awoke, because I had to hold the IV

Days that lasted forever, eyes blurry and face mud caked

- my blouse white with salt

one hundred degrees and midnight and I was cold!

The most beautiful place

- sunburned, my friends airlifted away

I only wish it had not robbed me of my dreams