Joshua Trees

Sentries by day with bayonets on guard,
Prophets by night in attitudes of prayer;
But when the dusk spreads veils across the hard
Sharp outlines of the land they hear an air,
Piped on a Pan-ic flute, unseen and far,
An echo from and older, gayer land;
They catch the winking of an elfin star
And dance a quaint arthritic saraband.