Ocotillo*

by RC Edrington

hot oil bleeds
from the rusted gut
of a junked motorcycle
like mascara
down a bruised cheek

in the dust
beer bottles scatter
shanks of gold teeth
into the sun

flowers
I remember
the bloody bloom
of ocotillo
hemorrhaging against
a cement gray
monsoon sky

& your face
almost forgotten now
like some
sacred language
lost to the wind


*the ocotillo is a desert plant found in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico which sprouts bright red flowers in spring and summer.