- Desert Dream -

By John Herlihy

The dream has the presence of a sure reality,

Coming into clear focus in all its harsh totality.

A sun blazes down with the heat of a furnace,

My eyes blinded my light as I seek in earnest.

There I am in the desert with all its monotony,

Proud cactus a fine example of exotic botany.

If worse comes to worst, I will suckle its milk;

My parched throat will savor this river of silk.

I climb thru a canyon from the dust of plains,

The earth parched, broken, from lack of rains.

Nighttime seemed so comforting under its hood;

Now I cast no shadow when in the light I stood.

The dream as relentless as my search for a well;

My mind near panic, the strain beginning to tell.

The semblance of a trail twisting and turning;

The canyon’s shadows relieve white light burning.

By the canyon’s wall, the desert seems yawning,

Its openness now fearful in the endless morning.

The tide of panic I felt earlier ebbs quietly away,

Still, the dream a reality as if I am here to stay.

The light so harsh, I see blacks across my vision,

Seeking to deflect light with ominous precision.

I climbed the canyon’s side as rocks fell down,

Seeking purchase on firm any rock underground.

I kept slipping down the slope on sandy grooves;

My feet felt thick and clumsy as horses’ hooves.

My soul then cried out futile into the expansive air,

Echoing thru the canyon valley with a certain flair.

Repeating and vibrating there in the far-off distance;

The breathless plain, blinding light offer no resistance.

You hear that, I said, the echo repeating my defiance;

The dream no longer a reality in the ensuing silence.

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(c) John Herlihy January 2019