We took it in
a schlock flick shot
in Namibia
all over Namibia. As if
her vast place fit a thimble
I loved it; it was horrible
exquisite for red mirages,
for guns climbing stairs
at Kolmanskop and blood,
blood everywhere.

Certainly a surprise,
the heroine survives
but it’s not her, just her body
appropriated by the drifter,
who was once a Texan
sans duster, which he appropriated
from Sergio.

Sealing her fate, she blew his head off
as he stepped over Niemand’s stick
with passionate declaration,
“Wendy, I love you!”
At least her husband
did not get away with it!

Yet horror lingers under tables
in back-room deals and fishing quotas.

Note: “Namib” is Khoekhoegowab for “vast place”. Dust Devil (1992) is a film written and directed by Richard Stanley.


Don Stevenson is an American poet, writer, graphic designer, artist, and a member of the Windhoek Writers Club. With his family he made a home in Namibia in 1981. His illustrated children’s book, The Wonderlamp, was published in that year. Ancestors and Other Visitors, an anthology of poetry and drawings, was published in 2018.

Cover Image: Matthieu Joannon on Unsplash.