Desert Time

Your mere presence around them, under their simple sun and commodious sky, is an anachronism. Their vast population engulfs you in wild squiggles. When you reach out a dry hand to brush their spines, they are gently maniacal people firmly rooted in dust and flowing rock.

A dollar may be used for research, for resource, for recourse. All disagree on potential uses being unethical/ unimportant/ wrong. But it is impossible to argue either case to a jury of Joshua trees. When the dollar is spent, when its effects are forgotten, when we are gone, they will still stand. In silence.