Dani Putney

Sidewind into the Universe

Standing atop Rattlesnake Hill,
the sun slashes
my cheek.
Skin peels
off, melts down
my thighs slithers
toward a puddle of gravel.
Wind catches my molt,
fertilizes the hillside.
Crescendo.
Earth brought me here
to witness
my undoing,
my becoming.
I’m sylph of the desert,
quarks buzzing my bones
(xylophone to the cosmos).
Coda.
Coda.

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Dani Putney is a queer, non-binary, Asian American poet exploring the West. Their poetry most recently appears or is forthcoming in The Chaffin Journal, Elephants Never, Lockjaw Magazine, and Tule Review, among other publications. Presently, they're infiltrating a small conservative town in the middle of the Nevada desert.