a dying breedI have traveled the Great Plains…

With endless corn fields and cascading hills of greens. I saw the crops sway back and forth with the invisible afternoon breeze. I could see more cows than people. But the people are friendlier and very eager to see another soul.

The skies are always clear, free of polluted haze and glares of some big intimidating city. It was all peace and quiet here, but as serene and tranquil as the place can be, this is just not for me.

I have come across the deserts… With endless stacks of sands and hot cracks of molten rocks. Miles and miles I have yet to see humans, just critters and crawling lizards. The land was so arid and dry it never knew water existed.

Now I think I knew what it meant, stuck between a rock and a hard place. Once I have met my few ancient geckos and drank my share of cactus juice, I moved on.

I have crisscrossed all the valleys and hopped along the mountaintops… With the personal sense of urgency I dared climbed Olympus searching for the gods all my life I was hoping to see. But they were nowhere to be found.

The altars were empty except for the decaying remnants of past human offerings. Questions unanswered and heart still discontented, down the mighty slopes  of the pillar of Hercules I descended.

I flew among the clouds as white as cotton sprouts… With new-found friends among ravaging hawks and peaceful turtle doves. We aimed so high like soaring eagles and looked down the acres of land sprinkled all over blue oceans.

Towering over all, defying the laws of gravity, suspended in mid-air, I was dizzy. I needed to put my feet back on solid ground. I can never stay that way. I hastily evolved.

So I went down the oceans that I once saw… Sailed past the stormy seas with tides that were huge and wide. I swam with a few eels that gave me never-ending static electric charges. I fought with ferocious killer whales competing for mere sustenance.

As bad as I needed it at the time, they had no choice but to give in while I go in for the eventual kill. That was my natural instinct.

At last I found land again, into the plush tropical gardens of the evergreens. I crossed the river canals and channeled my way around it. The sound was on my left and the cascades were on my right. The plush everglades and the salty summer breeze coming from the sea, a clashing sense of the best of both worlds combined into one.

When I finally find the heart of the deep enclaves of the ancient forest, I made love to all the fairies and talked with every bee. But you see, I can’t see the forest,  just the trees.

Being an explorer my whole life, I have never thought of looking for anything but the thrill of adventure, the excitement of finding new things, the unraveling of ancient mysteries.

Now, facing my own mortality, the thrill is almost dead and my testosterone supply is almost depleted.  All my love ones have come and gone, the colors and all that I can see have all but faded.  And as I looked back and see…

There is  no one left but me.