Dodo Eraser

The creatures of the Sonoran mutate
to survive its undying convulsion:
inherited heat      augmented death drive
fated peripheral biorhythmic
apocalypse—   In Wickenburg      I kneeled

at a treatment center’s boundary line
each dusk       to gawk at the indigo-flamed
horizon        above vast land       like a sea:
its brutal    hypnotic antiquity
a reminder       the guilt I cited as

evidence of my depravity      would
not outlast     the desert’s desire to
burn the atmosphere of its fallacy
and render it all    barren and pristine—
Before I arrived     I was necrotic

inward and in outlook   The Sonoran
recognized     my austerity     as its
own     taught me how to survive the arid
air    and channel it:   I can sense monsoons
with my teeth    grit erosion into steam

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Eva Alter is an American poet and information professional. Her work catalogs internal mythologies by pulling from procedural, formal, experimental, and lyric forms. Her debut chapbook, AUTOCARTOGRAPHIES, was published by Eulogy Press in October 2025, and her work is published or forthcoming in American Poetry Journal, BRUISER, Appalachian Journal, and elsewhere. She can be found at evaalterpoet.com, @/eva_alter_poet on Twitter, and @/eva.alter.poet on Instagram.