Smoke rose high behind me. To Magdalena I walked. I found a caravan of Okies, so I stopped and there we talked. They were headed whence I came, they said with dirt-caked smiles. Their crops were dead, their farms forsaken, and they’d wandered many miles. I offered up a little food but they kindly declined. Having suffered many hardships, their hunger they just didn’t mind. They told me I looked sick. They asked me to lie down. They offered me some medicine, which I greedily choked down. Strangers in the desert, burdened down by strife. Strangers in the desert, you can trust them with your life. They want to help you out. They want you to feel better. They’ll do everything they can for you, right down to the letter. They bowed their heads to pray for me and sang a bitter hymn. I suspected I’d been tricked as my vision throbbed and dimmed. My poisoned blood curdled as I saw through their disguise. A thousand eyes burned through me as they buzzed about like flies. “Why do I deserve this?” I cried out to the wastes. “Was I born merely to suffer until my grave I face?” The world was blotted out by light as I fell to my knees. I heard them buzz and swarm about, deaf to all my desperate pleas. Strangers in the desert, burdened down by strife. Strangers in the desert, you can trust them with your life. They want to help you out. They want you to feel well. They want to lay their eggs underneath your skin and watch you bloat and swell. I woke up under scorching sun, blood crusted on my hands. Destitute and all alone, abandoned in this barren land. The venom surged behind my eyes as I lay there and wept. I felt my life sink in the sands so I gave up and slept.