A lost and thirsty wanderer
sought oasis on a parched and dusty plain
where spectral mesas
merged with pastel stratus clouds -
quivering in the summer sun.
A slender blue ellipse emerged
along the horizon's edge,
taunting the traveler’s arid throat.
Recalling child-day afternoons.
splashing in the pond behind the barn,
his legs urged toward aquatic deliverance.
But knowledge seized his boots.
Wary of loving a delusion,
he chose instead to seek a road or farm
or chance upon a horse-backed rancher
tracking down an errant calf.
Still he looked back to his phantom pond –
never to know if an oasis flowed
less than an hour’s walk away.
December, 2018
Dec 29, 2018
Dec 29, 2018 at 9:41 AM UTC
A lost and thirsty wanderer
sought oasis on a parched and dusty plain
where spectral mesas
merged with pastel stratus clouds -
quivering in the summer sun.
A slender blue ellipse emerged
along the horizon's edge,
taunting the traveler’s arid throat.
Recalling child-day afternoons.
splashing in the pond behind the barn,
his legs urged toward aquatic deliverance.
But knowledge seized his boots.
Wary of loving a delusion,
he chose instead to seek a road or farm
or chance upon a horse-backed rancher
tracking down an errant calf.
Still he looked back to his phantom pond –
never to know if an oasis flowed
less than an hour’s walk away.
December, 2018
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