I can remember first learning about a mirage. I was a little boy riding in the family car on our way to Arkansas for a summer vacation. It was very hot and for the first time I noticed what looked like water dancing on the highway blacktop out in front of our car. The closer we got, the more it moved back. At first it was exciting to see this water in an unexpected place. But I learned. It was not real. Chasing it would never be successful.
This song about an imagined trip across a desert draws on this lesson about the mirage.