The Screaming Sheep
Tarantula's Passion
A Tarantula
stung
by a black wasp
and buried
becomes a heart
nest milk-rich with
larvae.
The dunes are never still.
The horned lizard becomes
rock. The elf
owl becomes the eye
of the cactus.
The pocket mouse in the hawk’s talon
becomes an egg
that hatches a new moon.
Air thickens into monsoon.
The saguaro is dying as you
are dying through time
dance a dying
dance.
The diamondback has shed his skin.
The dunes are never still.
Elisha Holt
Elisha Holt is a poet of seedpods, coyotes’ howl, and the wind over the chaparral. He was born in San Bernardino and raised in the rural Palo Verde Valley, a beekeeper. An MFA candidate at Cal State San Bernardino, his work has appeared in Apercus Quarterly, Inlandia, and on the wall at The Camel Saloon.