for Aria / for Evita
my baby
face a cactus
one too far to touch
a succulent
sunset portrait
at 5 o’clock come out
from your tile
your tucson stucco
take the sonoran
desert tread with care
about the sharp
thistled shadows
inhuman suns
play on organpipe stems
the greasewood
most sweet for you
smells of rain
velvet mesquite most touching
in its yielding pods
you find fruits you can consume
you and I both
know these
things before the saguaro
you seek the small the
soft and petaled
sterling-elizabeth arcadia (she/they) is a trans poet and diy tattooer in baltimore, where she watches birds and cares for her cat. her work is published or forthcoming in New Delta Review, Poetry Online, HAD, Cosmonauts Avenue, and elsewhere.