barren badlands in South Dakota

The flutter of paper thin eyelids,

                                     butterflies ^
                                                          as

the dry rattle, the absence of a pulse.
                        ^ ^
                   snake ,

She planted lilac and larkspur to dull the pain.
                        sage winecup ^ sun
                                                          eat

The prairie is as barren as dreams.
           desert lush

EDITOR’S NOTE: This poem was selected from entries submitted to our Creative Challenge Series #13: First Sentences, which required that the first sentence in the text must be used as given. Or in this case, quite cleverly, perhaps not.