Shifting Whispering Sands

I discovered the valley of the shifting, whispering sands While prospecting for gold in one of our western states I saw the silent windmills, the crumbling water tanks The bones of cattle and burrows, picked clean by buzzards Bleached by the desert sun I stumbled over a crumbling buckboard nearly covered by the sands And stopping to rest, I heard a tinkling, whispering sound And suddenly realized that even though the wind was quiet The sand did not lie still I seemed to be surrounded by a mystery So heavy and oppressive, I could scarcely breathe For days and weeks I wandered aimlessly in this valley Seeking answers to the many questions That raced through my fevered mind Where was everyone? Why the white bones, the dry wells? The barren valley where people must have lived and died Finally, I could go no farther, my food and water gone I sat down and buried my face in my hands And resting thus, I learnt the secret of the shifting, whispering sands How I escaped from the valley, I do not know But now to pay my final debt for being spared I must tell you what I learned out there on the desert So many years ago When the day is oddly quiet And the breeze seems not to blow One would think the sand was resting But you'll find, this is not so It is whispering, softly whispering As it slowly moves along And for those who stop and listen It will sing this mournful song Of sidewinders and the horn toads Of the thorny chaparral In the sunny days and moonlight nights The coyote's lonely yell How the stars seem you could touch them As you lay and gaze on high At the heavens where we're hoping We'll be going when we die