Desert Journeys

About noon they arrived to its scorching welcome,
A Sahara of arid wind unfurling before them.

There the sun radiated proudly, burning their skin
with the touch of its beams, unwanted companions.

One of the travellers trudged wearily through shifting sands
avoiding a fall on prying Cacti calling out with colourful pokes.

Another steadied a backpack drenched with dust
Blowing haze and fears from miles afar.

Or so it seemed. Until sooner
When the real danger that lurks in their minds

Appeared from a distant: the veiled ones
welding guns and trafficked drugs. And girls.

The journeying duo said their last prayers
to an unknown god. But the Tuareg greeted them with a smile.