Tom Lynch

White Sands Dunes

Glittering in the wide tularosa basin between sheer-cliffed mountain ranges, white gypsum sand spills across the landscape. The huge dunes are spiked with yuccas. Stark light and crisp shadows define the landforms. Hill beyond hill of soft clean sand makes a perfect terrain for kids, tumbling and shrieking down the dunes. Overhead, missiles and jets from White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base trace the blue. When kids stop laughing you can hear, sometimes, the rumble of invisible jets. On the northern horizon, the first atomic bomb was detonated. This place, a giant sandbox for my boys, makes clear the fragility of innocence.

clean dune face
      I decline
      to walk it