The hot June sky breathes heavily upon the tree after which I was named, which may shield me from the light of the sun, but not its violent heat or the overburdened air from which I fight each breath, air which assaults the browning grass that gave up long ago when the rains had begun, dampening the ground and the air, and so they remain, and so wildflowers grew with pious fervor oblivious to traffic, and clouds hang with handsome and gracious indifference to the Joshua tree below.