Editor's Note

There's something about the desert, the preservation of the past, the waves of history visible on every canyon wall, the bones of those who forded the now arid rivers poking up through the dust, the relentless sun and the cold star-field nights that go on forever. You can build cities, you can eviscerate cultures and species, you can conjure all the golf courses and rodeos and fats-food joints you like, but you cannot defeat the desert. You cannot defeat the land that will sweep us away one flood and heatwave after another until the job is done. Long after we're gone, all our cities and progress razed to dust, the desert winds will cast our poems and stories and images of pain, joy, failure, and endurance into the canyons to pinwheel in dirt-devils and reach for the sky before settling in to an epoch of silence. We share these now, but never forget -- the desert always wins, so enjoy the warmth of the fire and the words shared between strangers while you can. 

I'll see you down the road.

James Duncan

Editor