Oasis

Yesterday's mirage:
                   azure sky, turquoise lake
                   emerald spruce, diamond snow.

                   Now vanished.

And great grinding, churning, belching
        swaths of manscape surround.

Alpine valley, flocked in bloom
                       wreathed by sharp slopes strewn
                                            with copper and slate,

                       wavers. fades from imagination
                      golden shadows dim, grey

As pulsing human wants
      blare greedy toils across the land.

But the half-remembered sphere of clean
      still lifts my mind
      tugging intent like balloon on thread.