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Wed 9 Apr, 2003 04:43 pm
Verona
I dreamed of Verona last night. My childhood friend's mother, walking along a deserted stretch of Mexican beach after losing her boat in an unexpected storm.
Verona's daughter told me that she was sure her mother wouldn't have been afraid. I agreed....
A sportswoman and scientist, she was curious about everything and as she walked down the beach in search of shelter and water, I know she was also identifying plant life and animal tracks.
She must have survived for several days; her skills were excellent and she would have considered the situation a challenge, a competition with the desert. When sun and dehydration brought her down, she would have analyzed what was happening to her body, she would have been aware of which organs would be the first to shut down.
Did she see coyotes and vultures patiently waiting for her to die? Did she feel the flys and ants on her flesh? Did fear make her skin crawl or did dehydration cloud her mind before fear could lead her to insanity?
Most of her bones were found there on the beach. Dental records confirmed that the sturdy jaw and strong bones had, indeed, been Verona.
I know she would be pleased that her body didn't go to waste in a needlessly expensive coffin. Better to offer her body as a sacrament to the coyote, the vulture and the dry, desert sand.
The desert is not always a desert. So many look at the desert and see nothing but in truth it is full of life.
So true, Joanne. Even though I haven't lived in the desert for a very long time, I still miss it terribly. It is full of life, wonderful life. And desert nights, aah, nothing like desert nights!
It can also be a very lonely place and that is what I wonder about when I think of Verona. She was so self sufficient that I doubt that she let the lonliness get her down. I really don't know how I would have reacted in her place.
Diane-i would like to recomment from the book "lyrical and critical essays" by Albert Camus specifically "winds at D'jamlia" (not sure of the spelling)
Diane, Your desert song was one of sadness, but one that caused me to stop and think. I have never been in a desert, but it always seems to symbolize vastness to me. I am certain that in some way, your dream must have been connected to the Middle East. You did a beautiful job of writing here. Now I, too, am thinking about Verona.
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