Songdog Ranch

From the concrete islands,
From the Beast's of Burden,
People come.

They come to the lost place,
The place which everyone has,
Within their hearts.

The place which calms their spirits,
Excites their souls,
And where you leave your common sense at the door as you would your gun.

Whether you stay a week or a day,
the experience affects you forever as other experiences do.
But this one changes you, imprints itself upon your memory like a scribe upon paper.

The view showing not only all you can see but more.

Snakes slide past you in the prime of the night,
soaking in the heat emanating from the dying fire.

Comets blaze across the open sky as ordinary people get on with their lives.
As we look out onto the horizon for eternity, the comet burns up.

We leave different, experienced.

We leave with the twinkle of the stars in our souls and we let them shine out onto other people through our eyes as the coyote's song of the Songdog Ranch echo's through our memory.

written by Gareth Hawkins (16 years old)
summer 2000 - during a chance viewing of a comet entering the atmosphere.