The desert sands of my distant home
Still burn beneath my native sun's face
The mountain peaks of my lost youth
Still rise above my ancient birthplace
And the remoteness from my world
Weighs on me and starves my soul
No peace of mind in this foreign land
No matching half to make me whole
Alien air, alien food, alien thoughts
Isolated in this crowd, illogical, yet true
An alien stranger among stranger aliens
All my memories seem suddenly too few
Yet, what reasonable complaint could I make
Was I not fortunate to ever dwell there
To look upon that sky, to hear that desert song
Can I, of all, complain of what is unfair
Am I like the human angel Lucifer
Who, having known heavenly grace
Suffers ever more bitterly for his mythical fall
All contentment, lost forever, without a trace
Nay, I will endure and remember
I will find peace within myself, in this place
And reflect on the good fortune of my past
And my distant life beneath Eridani's face
Frank J. Hernandez
Copyright ©2000 Frank Hernandez