The spheres I thought jewels were only of brass,

I should have known, reeling through the desert sky,

Beauty is only as deep as the mask.

Rattler or rodent I meant no trespass,

Here only to feel the truth of the lie,

The spheres I thought jewels were only of brass.

Guised in piety like monks of days past,

God himself knew, portraying painted eyes,

Beauty is only as deep as the mask.

The chorus of coyotes mocked with their laugh,

I sought the voice to howl back in reply,

“The spheres I thought jewels were only of brass!”

The still cactus, oblivious to wrath,

I thought the spiny thing strong to defy

God and his guises, coyotes and masks.

I bled like a virgin in the desert scrub grass,

Never again a midnight passerby.

The spheres I thought jewels were only of brass,

The beauty revealed was only a mask.