Avatar Meyer Baba

Avatar Meyer Baba

Desert sun
Creosote
Yucca
And oven wind

Who were you
And what happened?

In 1969 someone built
A shrine in the desert
A shrine for you

Maintained it for many years
Fresh palm leaves inside
In the alter area
I believed so long
Was an urn
For your ashes
I thought

Fresh paint on the shrine
The sign kept your picture
There, safe

Desert sun
Creosote
Yucca
And oven wind

Chain link fence
Around an acre or three
Set up with water
Electricity
Sewer
Connections
So the world could
Come to you here

A world that never came

Desert sun
Creosote
Yucca
And oven wind

I watched the keepers
Grow old
And never saw them

Watched the paint crack
The palm leaves
Gradually became
Less frequent
Until they ceased

Replaced
In favor of
Easier plant life

Desert sun
Creosote
Yucca
And oven wind

And knew

Those who remembered
Were stooping
Under the weight
Of years

Desert sun
Creosote
Yucca
And oven wind

Revisited after a pause
Three years ago
And found the names
Scratched away
Bernal Rubias
Reyda Fresna
Maybe

Your picture
Torn from the sign
Deleted
By vandals
Or

Desert sun
Creosote
Yucca
And oven wind

“I am the ancient
And I come
To Redeem
The modern
World”

A world that never came
But
Desert sun
Creosote
Yucca
And oven wind

From Poems of the New Old West by Jack Purcell, copyright 2003
(This shrine can be seen in Columbus, New Mexico)