Desert Traveler Poem by Marlin Nightingale

Desert Traveler



A burning orb in the breathless sky,
The heat from it's phantom flame,
Desert, brown as the coughing dust,
And a land bereft of rain.

A figure hunched in a haunting form,
A victim of the land,
Trudging and temporal and ragged and torn,
His feet in the scorching sand.

He knoweth not where the ending lies,
Of his fight with desert death,
But he parries the stab of his thirsty cries,
And draws another breath.

With his lungs as dry as parchment,
From the heat of the sun-seared air,
There he pauses for a moment,
And casts a hollow stare-

Cross landscape stretched to a hopeless length,
Like a canvas flat and shorn,
No hope; 'til at once a call of strength,
From the vesper sky is born!

The eagles cry breaks the drought of joy,
In the travelers worn-out soul,
And he thinks of the land where the bird must nest,
Where the water springs and rolls!

Could the ending be just a mile or two?
Where some towering trees will stand?
But he strains to see where the brown meets blue,
And there's sand and sand and, -sand.

And now it seems as if hope is gone,
For the sun in the west is low,
And the blood red sky that he looks upon,
Has an evil smirking glow.

He hobbles on in this horrible race,
With his faith about to crack,
He pauses to look Death in the face,
And he finds Death looking back.

A stumbling step or two or more,
With eyes that blur and glaze,
He falls down on the desert floor,
Unconscious, in a daze.

'Til now, Death seemed to have its way,
But in a twist of fate,
Another traveler of the day,
Has stopped to help so late.

Then gentle arms are lifting him,
Onto a four-legged beast,
Who is this man who stopped to help?
A friend! I'd say, at least!

So when we've gone as far as we can,
And we're at a hopeless end,
We may not even know it, but...
We're rescued by a friend! !

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Marlin Nightingale

Marlin Nightingale

Oklahoma, United States
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