Just six of us left after we crash-landed
on a wasteland where we searched for an oasis,
while bone-dry mesas threatened to erase us
with coats of desert varnish. Lost and stranded
on some forsaken planet, dunes as high
as mountains, trudging in an angry sun
hot as the atoms in a laser gun,
my rations gone, I had two choices: die
or kill the others for their water. Well,
I was the sole survivor. Shambling
along for what seemed years, then scrambling
up endless slopes, death-tired in every cell,
I came upon a wonder, widely known —
power lines, a road — and wept. Alone.
_________________________________
(Appeared in Eye to the Telescope)
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