Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DESERT MADNESS, by FLORENCE H. HARKINS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DESERT MADNESS, by                    
First Line: Eerie and dim, a ghostly twilight land
Last Line: "here in my apron I have saved his bones."
Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares


Eerie and dim, a ghostly twilight land,
Death Valley lay, futile, as dead things lie;
One cloud alone, a triple, blood-rimmed band
Struck woundingly, its gash low down the sky,
And scattered broken bits of crimson stain
Athwart the shadows, as of clotted rain.

Long hours my faithful mare had borne the throes
Of heat and thirst; the choking, venomed sting
Of sand. 'Twas she first guessed yon vapor rose
Above some rock-bound, priceless, living spring,
Where scarcer bones bedecked the charnel earth
We stumbled o'er -- the desert's ghoulish mirth!

A woman met us at the pool -- once young
And mayhap fair, but warped and blood-drained; gaunt
And bent as some starved, elfin tree, chance sprung
Amid the barren crags where witches haunt.
"You've come for him!" she shrilled, her words like stones;
"Here in my apron I have saved his bones."





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