The gravel-covered plain formed
--
A new life began
-
A cold bleak place-
Full of sand and snowstorms
Dunes carved by the weather
An eerie foreign world
Not of this earth
Nomadic herders also abound
The Gobi hides its riches
Of copper and gold
Partial home of the Silk Road
For thirteen hundred years
Carrying beauty to Europe
Home of the black-tailed gazelle
Which runs like lightning
Sandplovers, mice, beetles,
Bactrian camels, majestic snow leopards
An occaaional minaret
A grave imposing edifice
Areas of grass
Dry rock
And those waterless expanses
The Mongols called Tengger
The Gobi is hungry
Each year
Fourteen hundred square miles
Swallowed by the desert
Fifty billion in losses
And worse dust storms in China