of deserts and strawberries

so they bought these strawberries at a roadside stand because they wanted to taste the earth around them. they kept the strawberries, a little overripe and soft, in a plastic bag in the back of the car as they drove through the desert. joshua trees, sun, white-burned rocks, roads with crackles and peeling paint. they ate the berries in the sun and the juice dripped at their feet sort of like blood but mostly like love. they wanted to stay in the desert but arrived in vegas anyway and by that time, the strawberries had gone bad and they left them rotten and brown on the hotel sink the next morning.