The Raven Book Store Twenty Nine Palms Poem by Juan Olivarez

I once found, a tiny piece of heaven
Out in the high desert
Among the cholla
And the sand
And a Jade tree
By the door.

Walking in
I passed into a parallel universe
And immediately I was surrounded
By an other worldly scent.
The scent of books
The wonderful scent
Of ancient paper
Books.

Indeed, a piece of paradise
On Twenty Nine Palms Highway
A skip and a hop
From Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree.
An oasis in the Mojave
Water for my mind
My eyes said Mirage
My eyes lied

Few things have ever made me as happy
As that little book store
Fifteen hundred miles from my home
Out in the middle of the Mojave
As, The Raven Book Store
On Twenty Nine Palms highway.

7/3/2018
Alton Texas