The Journey Through America's Hell

The desert breeze Blowing across sun baked sands Lifeless eternity going off in all directions Tracks of wagons show through beneath the blue skies Centuries of dust lifted into the air by swirling winds Covering every trace that life was ever there Heat as hot as any oven roasts even the strongest soul Water holes that were there one day Dried up overnight Surrounded by the bones of horses left behind And the graves of a few men Buried by love ones left to suffer How did they make it? What made them push on through Hell on Earth? In the distance there were mountains Maybe a day away Most likely a month Snow covered peaks tempt the soul Plush with the tallest trees draw them to the west With rivers flowing like strings of jewels Rolling down moss covered rocks Toward the deep blue green sea The smell of the pine The clean scent of a waterfall Drifts across the empty sands Filling the few left with hope People and horses struggle Suffer through pain unimagined by others Hours, days and weeks more To stand at the foot of the Rockies And get a look at the Promised Land So they will suffer no more