The sky is white with heat.

The air blisters.

Joshua trees burn a negative on my eyelids.

I walk the desert creek bed,

turning over the odd fossil.

Beneath my feet, unborn insects

wait for a flood to trigger their birth.

A month of sparkling water

coaxing green from this beige place.

Water, from a stone.

Hard to tell what’s mirage.

Hard to believe in rain.

Desert

Rosalie Hendon (she/her) is an environmental planner living in Columbus, Ohio. Her work is published in Change Seven, Pollux, Willawaw, Write Launch, and Sad Girls Club, among others. Rosalie is inspired by ecology, relationships, and stories passed down through generations.