White Sands, New Mexico

A beautiful austerity defines the desert
Where stark white sifts and settles beneath deep azure
Like snow that doesn't fall and doesn't melt,
But shifts about with the whim of the wind,
Reshaping the permanently ephemeral dunes
Whose sandy faces, now pocked with vestiges
Of exuberant feet,
Will appear untouched at morning,
As if erased by some magic of the night.