Approaching Arid
by Inga Lea Schmidt

will I become desert in desert
		sand-toned lizard
		water hoarder
		fire ants bleeding from a pinhole

will I bleach

blow hot air
		sprout juts that resemble other 
		shapes and people cannot name them

live like a jackrabbit
		a dune
		a weathered bone

eat salt
		and carelessness

while throwing hunger like a wild pitch
		and thirst like seeds to plant

shrink 
		and crack
		and petrify

nocturnalize
		mecactusize

my foot even now turning Camel Thorn Tree
		my eyes, Fata Morgana
Packingtown Review – Vol.10, Spring 2018

Inga Lea Schmidt holds an MFA from Hollins University. Her work has previously been published in Puerto del Sol, CALAMITY, Gigantic Sequins, Cosmonauts Avenue, and elsewhere. She lives and writes in Pittsburgh. Inga was a contributor to Volume 9 of Packingtown Review.

  1. Jean Wolff
    Crickptgart