Art: "The Sherman Oaks Lonesome Dog, just East of Eden" by Adeline Jackson

Poetry: "On the Nature of Desire" by Erin Peters

A hawk grabs a dove

from the mesquite tree

in my backyard.

 

It’s a precise event,

too decisive to be tragic,

at first.

 

Recently, I’ve been imagining

my death. Indulging

in the deconstruction

of my limbs. Easing

into surrender.

 

I didn’t consider the pain.

The screech. The sound

of twigs falling into the dirt

and then the quiet.

 

In bed that night, I ask my lover

to devour me. But he knows,

somehow, what I’ve seen.

 

He smiles sweetly and kisses

the tip of my ear.

Published March 22nd 2025

Erin Peters is an MFA candidate in poetry at Colorado State University,
where she serves as an associate editor for *Colorado Review*. She grew up
in the Phoenix Metropolitan area, and her writing is interested in the
connections between desert environments and the human body.