Showing posts with label desert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label desert. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Desert Girl

This came from the following prompt from Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir by Natalie Goldberg: "We all come from someplace. Where did you come from? How did you escape? Go for ten."

I come from the desert. I'm a lifelong desert girl. My body was formed in dry heat, my bones shaped from saguaro skeletons. I can walk through 110 degree heat; heat so oppressive that it practically suffocates you. I'm a desert girl--the dry heat is second nature to me. I often feel like a saguaro, warding off outsiders with sharp spines all over my body. Get away from me. I soak up whatever I can when I get it, much like saguaros soak up rainwater. I survive on it for months. Give me all you have to give, I'll thrive on whatever you have.

I haven't escaped the desert yet, I've only migrated from one part to another. I know one day I will. I'll leave the dry heat for the sizzling humidity of summers in New York. But no matter where I go, I'll always have the desert. It's in my body, my bones, my marrow, my blood. It's all over my skin. It's in my nature. I'll always be a desert girl, even in snowy New York winters.

Give me all you have to give.


Me.