Within the arid heart of shifting sands,
A swathe of ancient microbes team with life;
When gluts of unseen rainfall drench these lands,
They promise sweet refreshment from their strife.
Yet these unbidden floods conceal a knife,
With which to slay these citizens through shock;
And where these hardy natives once ran rife,
The landscape has returned to sand and rock.
The Vikings did the same when they once ran amok.
The Valle de le Luna (Valley of the Moon) in the Atacama Desert (Photo Credit: ReflectedSerendipity)
This is a Spenserian stanza, inspired by recent research which found that when an area in Peru’s Atacama Desert encountered rainfall after long
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