We, the Desert
— Bryan Sykes, The Seven Daughters of Eve
At a Glance
- • A poem of parching and carving on the windward side of a dune, in which the body becomes sand-carved and the question is whether the desert crumbled from us or we become the desert.
- • Author: Olivera Andonoska
- • Form: Free verse, three stanzas, the last a single unbroken question
- • Collection: We Are Eve
- • Theme: Drought, carving, and becoming desert
- • Epigraph: Bryan Sykes, The Seven Daughters of Eve
we roll along the crest of this desert dune
countless grains of sand stick to our bare skin
no matter how we turn
we are still on the windward side
the wind whips us and carves our bodies
flesh packed between the ribs
eyes full of shards
hands and fingers dry, dry
dry roots woven through
the scorched ground of this wasteland
these grains of sand are far from the seas
the sound of their touch is a tart scraping
the sand is wholly waterless
and our bodies
are parched
we turn into carvings
who knows whether this desert crumbled from us
or from this desert we become a desert
About Olivera Andonoska
Olivera Andonoska (b. 1980, Prilep, North Macedonia) is a philologist and proofreader specializing in the Macedonian language. She is the author of the poetry collection We Are Eva, which received the Antevo Pero Award in 2025, and the short story collection How I Killed Vera and How She Was Reborn. She has also published children’s books. Her poetry and prose have appeared in literary magazines, and she has participated in literary festivals. In addition to her own writing, Andonoska works as an editor on a range of publications.
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