Author: Michael Vail Copyright 2021 Joshua Tree, CA. Cholla Needles Price: $12.25 (Paperback) There is something about the desert.  No other environment on planet Earth is more cleansing and clarifying.  No less a figure than Jesus Christ went out in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights to get his mind right before His ill-fated journey to Jerusalem.  Mere mortals need more time, say the 40 years that author Michael G. Vail has spent visiting and eventually living in California’s Mohave Desert adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park.  Locals call it the “high desert.”  Like the unusual and gawky Joshua Tree itself, this area is just plain unique and different. As is High Desert Elegy.  This collection of 23 short stories and 12 poems has been written by a man who has obviously lived a lot of life. He realizes that what the desert and the human condition have most…