The New mesquite

The New Mesquite

Every transformation becomes more than a mere face lift
Fields and lives forever changed
Sand dunes are interspersed with grassy fairways
Snakes slither into outer space
This desert surreal
As a powdery moonscape or an alien-infested
Wal-Mart at a midnight sale
Desert tortoises, arid wasteland
Easterly eco-explorations
Into the dry, almost desolate desert
Along a corridor of washes
A vast flood plain
The Virgin river that begins at Zion-
Symbol of perfection
The scampering roadrunners among succulents
A place that I call home
Where I awake to the brawling of bulldozers
After a long and restless sleep
Cultivating cacti in my dreams
The grinding teeth of change gnashing in my ears
Every barren acre will turn into housing
Hills become golfing meccas
Casino lights overshadow the stars and planets
Hordes escape Wisconsin winters
They race past the serene past
The Hopi hieroglyphics on sandstone walls
The adobe-brick Mormon barns
The thirst-slaking way-stations that give
Respite from dusty roads
The present an inevitable metamorphosis
From there to here, from then to now,
From east to west, from heart to head.