Natasha Deonarain

the desert in between

grackle cloaked in purple-black sheen glares with one golden eye	this land lies supine under a moth-eaten sky	whir of dragonfly wings in the hushed desert night
	wind wails through the emptied eyes of a coyote’s skull	vulnerable, bruised	lake crawls back and into herself
gray-white ash left on her unmade bed		demon’s breath on my face	thorn-coated tongue licks sweat from my neck
	hooded moon turns her pallid face to dark		saguaro’s corpse beside a rattler coiled nearby
twisted, dry	horned owl calls at midnight		cricket click-crawls
	a hiss rises like two hands from the ground

I step outside these words and find you—

Natasha N. Deonarain is the author of two chapbooks, winner of the 2020 Three Sisters Award and Best of the Net Nominee. She was born in South Africa, grew up in Canada and currently lives in Arizona.

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