The Mojave Desert, My Love Poem by Juan Olivarez

Every morning I wake I see you through my window,
Hot, unforgiving, mysterious, and so beautiful.
As I lie here in my bed, I hear your call in my head.
The call to the washes, and the canyons, and the creosote bushes,
The cholla and the deadly Teddybear with it's fearsome claws.
The call to the sands sparkling with gold dust,
The mountains sparkling with new fallen snow,
The leaves on the Desert Willow sparkling with the only green,
For endless miles.
The white desert Iguanas are starting to move about,
Their blood still chilled from the cold night.
Coyotes still scavenge in and around the neighborhood,
In the driveways in the sandy backyards,
Around the streets all around.
The Ravens on the telephone wires, start their daily squawking,
to ensure that every denizen of the desert is awake.
Slowly the giant yellow orb rises in the east and with it,
The air around starts to shimmer as the heat waves begin to rise,
Off the white desert sands.
Not a cloud covers the great expanse of the sapphire skies,
That stretch on forever, or so it seems.
So much beauty, so very much, all around.
The ravens fly off to the mountains,
And all of a sudden, silence, reigns once again.
Deep impenetrable silence, Silence so thick, that you feel,
That you ears are stuffed with cotten, and nothing comes through.
No cars, no jackhammers, no horns blowing, no people talking,
Silence, deep impenetrable silence.
And suddenly you see it, a cloud,
But a cloud so different from other clouds, you know in an instant,
That it is a cloud of ice chrystals.
Left behind by an airliner as it makes it's way to the city of Angels,
Two hundred miles to the south.
The call from my love is in my head,
Shedding my jacket I breath the clean and vibrant Mojave air,
And I head off to the far blue mountains.
Quail and rabbits scurry away to hide at my approach.
Life is all around, The Mojave is full of life,
And I am a part of it.

1/12/12 Alton Texas