I have made it! The journey is complete!

          I can see the greenery. It's so dark.

          Months and eternity spent in the desert brightness,

          Now the Paradise I have sought looks strangely dark.

          But I have made the trek against all chaos!

          The odds were against me, yet as long as life is

          Hope is. A slim chance is. A chance

          As slim as my skeletal, sand-whipped frame is.

          Losing myself in the green, I easily recall

          How blistering wasteland near laid waste

          To the man with no reverie, from a forgotten land,

          From a lost time—with a forgotten name

          (A man I only now know as me....)

          I stumbled, the sand filling my holey boots,

          Collapsed face down into a slumber so deep that

          Made me dream of flaxen-haired women, all garbed

          In sheer shrouds of white, gentle smiles.

          But I awakened from the sleep like a champion,

          Shaking off the most vicious blow in the long fight,

          My energy renewed, the desert gone from about me.

          Now I can see the fair ladies emerging from

          The green depths of the forest waiting to cleanse me.

           Alas! I have made the journey.

           Now life is complete. The desert is memory.

           By God! The lilacs and doves! The maidens' caress!

           My nightly thoughts come true at last.