Antonymity in Thousand Palms Canyon

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Claim this place an oasis? Generous.

Yes, there are palms huddled at their office

shading nonzero creatures venomous,

resting on sand the parts of them softest.

 

But now they lather with such confusion.

“Dull uprights, don’t they know how heat can freeze?

The liquid here is the sole contusion

on our radial of porcelain knees!”

 

Misinterpretation — who’s here for good

in this calm, pliant Edenic ripoff?

I planted my tripod, screwed the lens hood,

framed their home with a click of my Linhof.

 

Not just, my shutter; raucous are these hills.

The deserted sun fangs its slow noon chills…