swimming in the thin blue

It's a big place, the north desert. 

The sky stretches to the point of breaking. 

Miles of thin blue and deep white.

 Forever is out there. 

 The roads are forever, the horizon, the sand, and the salt.

The day is forever. 

Out there the clouds dance with the sky while the sun sits back and watches.

Life is long and lean and inside out.  

Oceans made of sand and waves of tumbleweeds. 

Showers of sunlight.  Driftwood ghosts.  

I am sure it is the hallway to heaven... &/or hell.

But between those two doors there is life. Wild and unencumbered. 

A playground made of black rocks and white bones.

"If you had a little place out here, a house tucked into the saddle of one of these hillsides how long do you think you could stay out here alone?" he asked me.

"Forever."

I could live there, sheltered by isolation. 

I could sit quietly and let my soul dry out. 

Never have to pretend to anything to anyone.

Because in the north desert...

I am overwhelmingly happy.

 Forever swimming in the thin blue.