The Desert Basin

The arid wind continuously blows
Across the desert basin
Picking up grit as it goes,
Sandblasting the buttes
And wearing cavities and crevices
In the walls of the cliffs.
Desert animals inhabit
The wind made hollows,
Hiding during the heat of the day,
And making their rounds at night.
The wind drops its dusty load
On the valley floor
Forming dunes of sand
Which build relentlessly
To towering heights,
And swallow the sparse
Desert vegetation.
Miners from a century ago
Tried their luck
At harvesting the desert’s bounty,
But all that remains
Of their tormented efforts
Are twisted relics,
Ramshackle shacks,
Rusting metal mining gear
And piles of excavated rock
Littering the ground.
It is a harsh
And unforgiving land
With a beauty all its own.