A Failed Portrait of a Desert

Where is the twice-baked earth?

Where are the teeth
prepared to drain blood
for the water?

This is a desert
with a human face.
Too much blue.

You won't see blue
in the bright.

The desert light 
bends even snakes
toward shadow. 

Yes, there is a magpie.
That corvid heart
will leave this work
to follow the ravens
and the coyotes

to the next hot place
where intestines are out
and dinner is served.