he rode deeper into the desert, his
tongue dustier than his boots.  the thirsty
noonday sun siphoned the last drops of sweat
from the back of his blazing, blistered neck.
the horse staggered.  he knew he was just dead-
weight in the saddle and there was nothing
but sand.  mounds, bluffs, ridges of pale yellow.
time passed.  passed?  but the savage sun was still.

then

she appeared on the dune in silk.  blue.  a
cornflower blue that rippled against her
body.  he closed his eyes and thought of the
rolling fields of breeze-ruffled, dotted blue
back home
he saw himself riding ahead and then
he was there.  off his horse at the foot of
the dune, and she descended.  her eyes were
the same blue as her dress and her lips, red
lips, were parted and he could see her hips
move like liquid through the silk.  swish. swish.  as
she came closer her long dark hair brushed her
shoulders.  swish. swish.  and then she was there and
she pulled him into her breast and he breathed
in and it smelled like the wildflowers
back home
and the silk felt cool and he wanted to
drink it from her body and she drew him
down onto the sand and it wasn't hot
and he began to run his cracked hands up
her thighs and she sighed and he felt it on
his face like a spring gust from the green hills
back home.

then

the federales found him three feet from
the edge of the oasis.  face down, arm
outstretched over a patch of grass.  water,
like a mirror to the sky, lapping his
chafed fingertips.