sand dunes of Endurance crater (image courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell University)>
Abbas abd'el Sami is the sultan of the sands
He's the prince over the desert, he's a prophet in his land
His only home's a silken tent, he wanders with the wind
With the sighing of the lonely desert wind
He steals into the desert night,
with sword and gun and dynamite
and no man's walls can hold him in
he wanders with the desert wind
he's a warrior and a lover, got a harem of his girls
and he loves em and he leaves em in the palaces of the world
No one can say they know him, though all men know his name
He keeps his heart well hidden, and his love is just a game
Riding across the burning sands
into the cliffs of shadowed lands
In hot pursuit, the nomad bands
and the sighing of the wind
But when the sand storm come,
When the sand storm blows across the wastes
Everything gonna be changed, I tell you
Yes, everything's gonna be changed
He races through the desert night,
with scimitar and dynamite
Only the moon dares call him kin
The moon, the sun, and the desert wind
For Abbas abd'el Sami, he's the sultan of the sands
He's the caliph of the wasteland, he's a prophet without a land
When the sun comes up on lonely peaks, he's vanished with the wind
With the sighing of the lonely desert wind.
--Geoffrey A. Landis, 2000
sand dunes of Endurance crater (image courtesy NASA/JPL/Cornell University)>