The Illusion

Dunes so tall their dust permeates the air

Heat so dry my skin has begun to scar and scab

Having sucked on the crust of sand in these storms

It is a paradise just to have imagined the illusion

Of an oasis beyond my focal point.

That sensation remains, of relief and gratitude

To have hoped in something that could have been

Despite its falsity.

And in the ferocity so plentiful of my staggering gait

Limping towards a finish line belonging entirely to something else

It was at the threshold of this monstrous dune

That I saw the simmering heat threatening to defeat me

Should I continue to chase the lost cause of that mocking mirage.