To The Oasis They Came

They came across the salt pans, endless earth, a möbius pilgrimage.
Each step on a conveyor belt furthering their seeming retreat,
Delivery to the their unmaking, crawling to death by the beat.
The air betrayed its nature as it gave no room for breathing,
The ground beckoned surrender and welcomed horizontally sprawled greeting,
Each pause along the way a lengthening with every stop.

They spoke no words and heard none but their own private ponderings.
They imagined relief in drowning, conjured wells from stone and barren trees.
On and on they pined silently for sea, in the land of the lonely season.
So they continued across the land on the dream they each believed in.

Under watchful gaze of stars and moon by night they trudged.
Their honor guard of vultures high in flight eyed hungrily.
Judge, excecutioner and jury.
The weary travelers went westward with the light.
They followed the beast that chased, snapped, passed by and felt it bite.

To where they went they did not know, nor seemed to care.
"Away" they said before they left, together they consoled their cares bereft.