I am dreaming, back in the badlands, kneeling over the vertebrae I had tossed in my previous phase of sleep. The warmth of the sun reigns across the entirety of the sandy, grassy, cacti-ridden landscape. Still no water. I am perspiring hard, watching beads of sweat encircle the vertebrae. Picking it up, I get a feeling that it is no ordinary vertebrae. Standing up on shaky knees, feeling like Ariel when she tried standing for the first time on the beach after washing ashore, I lock eyes on a big boulder near the dried up stream in the coulee.
Hurling with all my might, I throw the vertebrae against the rock and it smashes into smithereens, pulverized. Waiting to see if something happens, if some sort of spirit or deity will emerge from the dramatic scene, I happen to spot something glitt
