Without anyone tending to the buildings, the sand is already gathering up the sides of the whitewashed domes and creeping into open doorways.  The immense riches of Star Wars collectibles that fill nearly every corner of every structure are slowly warping and fusing into one plastic mass in the heat. I pick an oversized Boba Fett figure up off the floor. Once valued for its see-through scope eye, smaller figurines are stuck to the doll like clusters of corral.

Next week, Moussa will be leaving the area and taking his herd north as summer hits the desert and the already oven-like temperatures increase. “One must move with the sand. That is what the desert asks of us,” he says as he brings us back towards town.


<sub>Note: If you think Tataouine should be spelled Tatooine, see here. Based on the real city in Tunisia. From Davis- "I went with the real spelling since my story is set in the real area. not the fictional planet."

Brian Joseph Davis is an artist and writer based in Toronto. He's the author of Portable Altamont (Coach House), the novel I, Tania (ECW), and the upcoming short fiction collection, Ronald Reagan, My Father. L.A. Weekly recently declared, “Davis has an amazing head for aural experiments—creating expansive compositions out of found sounds and computer manipulations—that are smart on paper and fascinating in execution.” Slate.com called I, Tania, “The book of your fever dreams.” He is the co-founder of Joyland.ca.</sub>