He says:
“Let’s go to the Dove of the Desert”
Yesterday we were at the Casino
And I won $13, his lucky number
So today it is the Dove of the Desert
At WA’K or B’AK, the oldest continuously inhabited townsite
in the lower 48,
Irrigated fields
off the Santa Cruz River
discovered in the renovation of the I-19
Interchange,
several years ago
Dated at 5,500 years ago,
The oldest Native American irrigated site
North of Mexico.
The Tohono O’Odham
Famous for the Man in the Maze
The oldest known Labyrinth in North America
So we see the beautiful
Adoration of the Mission Church begun
By Father Kino in 1692
Much older than any California Mission
The Franciscans still operating it today
With a wooden effigy of the dead Saint Francis
We are swept aloft
By swirls of angels
Like cotton candy of the Spirit
Part the Second
After we smoke a cigarette
By the Indian graveyard
We come to Mission Road
And ask each other:
What would happen if we turn left?
So I turn left and drive 20 miles
Past the giant mountains of tailings
from the Pima copper mine
Down to the end of Mission Road
At Duval Mine Road
And thence to Sahuarita
Thence north again through the pecan orchards
Stately as Southern France
Or Sonoma, California
Finally back to Tucson
Our last stop is the Pascua Yaqui
Shrine to Saint Martin de Porres
And then we part
With a soft “God Bless You!”
To each other, My friend Rich and I
Chris Lovette
Tucson, AZ
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