SONIDOS DEL DESIERTO: SPECIAL ONGOING COLLECTION OF MUSIC & LYRICS

Special Guest Editor: Tony Drewry

Cottonwood Dreamin' and Whispering Winds

by Spencer Millsap

Photos by Spencer Millsap

Cottonwood Dreamin’

It was a late summer night, the full moon was bright

When I saw him.

Dark against the sky, a silhouette and eyes,

And He called me, The Coyote.

Off into the black without lookin’ back

I followed.

He was a lowly shapeshifter, a-desert dwellin’ trickster,

Who said, “Trust me — Wait and see.”

So we wandered far-off to a distant land full of hoodoo spires made of ancient sand.

I couldn’t even believe what I was seein’

---- I was surrounded by swells of a long lost sea

Swirlin’ ‘round with that coyote floatin’ next to me.

Then I knew: I must be cottonwood dreamin’.

Now the desert was alive. With a tingle in my spine,

I walked onward.

Each step erased. No path to retrace.

In This Unknown, my mind blown!

As the stars led the way, I finally had to say,

“Hey Coyote, where are we?”

“We’re close to the start, but a billion years apart from what you know.”

Then time slowed

And I knew I must be, cottonwood dreaming

All alone in a sea of green, cottonwood dreaming

Always searching for that life giving tree, cottonwood dreaming

Drifting far, far away from that coyote, I'm always cottonwood dreaming

Whispering Winds

The day slows down

Coolness calms the earth:

This Sacred Dirt.

Night creeps out

Off to do its work with a wicked smirk.

In this far-off land, I beckon to the beasts

Defiantly.

Darkness overhead, it’s let off of its leash

To wander free.

Stillness settles in,

The air electrified with wild eyes

The symphony begins, the Beast now alive with all his pride.

I should have known what forces worked unseen.

Those whisperin’ winds blowin’ in are coming for me.

But I’ll never know what calls me from the breeze.

Only those whisperin’ winds blowin’ in

Can know what’s next for me.

With flash and fury, it shakes me to my core, a mighty storm.

The earth shifts below me and says I have been warned,

Just this once more.

It’s almost over.

The tired weary beast, all bolts released,

Gives a final wave approaching with his last lingering piece

Just for me.

I should have known what the whisperin’ winds had fated for me.