It’s so hot

Sometimes

The sun blazes on my back

Sometimes

My legs stall for a moment

Sometimes

I consider just resting for the rest of my short life

I’m so tired

Always

My numb legs trudge on and on

Always

Water is a treasured gift

Always

The terrifying dunes loom ahead of me

And

Never

Do I stop

Never

Do I let the treacherous sand betray me

Never

Because if I walk far enough maybe someday I’ll e...

The world is nothing but a white haze.

Morning shrouds the desert’s vision. There is nothing to see but fog. Cold. Empty. _Perfect_.

The little stenocara beetle perches eagerly at the top of her tall rock; this is her favorite thing in the world, and she has waited for days.

The fog hugs close to her body, so close that the water gathers densely between the hills and grooves of her thick rou...

bug in the desert

a bug in the desert

hot sand, hard shell

the bug is in the desert

a rabbit is hungry

the bug is gone

bug in the sink

a bug in the sink

slippery basin, grippy feet

the bug is in the sink

the girl has dirty hands

the bug is down the drain

bug on the wall

a bug on the wall

strong gravity, stronger wings

the bug is on the wall

the boy is scared to sleep

the bug is paper-fl...

Everything hurt. The world had become a desert. Her life, unimaginable. She cleaned her antennae with nervous energy. Hoping against hope that this was a problem she could fix. She assessed as she rubbed her injuries. Clean, all clean, She waggled her feelers summoning courage to continue. She tasted the world again.

There was smooth hard glass ground, not a bottle with the sweet promise of suga...

First it was the pet shop. They found me and placed me there, in a back aisle where customers rarely saw me. The boys forgot to feed me, and it was there that I thought I would die first. Then that woman bought me, and I was happy for a small while until she died. Then it was the empty apartment, scurrying to find any food I might on the floor or behind the refrigerator. When her kids came to clea...

There it is! I’ve finally made it. Zzyzx Road.

Damn! The ground is scorching hot. I can handle it though. If I follow this dirt road, they said I’d find the best and biggest abandoned watering hole in the Mojave Desert known to insect, just short of Vegas. And that I wouldn’t want to leave.

On foot, the road went on forever.

A week later, I came upon a huge crucifix-shaped neglected but hal...

The yellowness leaked into the corners of the crypt, signaling that it was Above day.

I stretched myself in preparation, giddy with possibility.

Perhaps today would be the day.

Perhaps I wouldn't be alone anymore.

_3..._

_2..._

_1..._

I lurched my body into yellow, pushing up and against the sand as it flooded around me. There was a slight resistance before the sudden break, and then I was...

I inhabit darkness.

Other beings are made for the light; I am not. The light scorches, it burns. It kills. Death lies in the light. All of our kind, my brothers, my cousins, and my sisters, my lineage across generations, wither and dry in the Brightness. Under the Grains of the Sea I crawl, praying the air will remain still, for fast air is the harbinger of death.

We try to sleep under the Grai...

The scorching desert is a harsh and unforgiving landscape, a realm where the sun beats down with relentless heat and the air is so dry it feels like it's sucking the moisture out of everything. It's a place where only the toughest creatures can survive. And yet, for the small insects that inhabit this harsh environment, it's the only home they know.

As an insect, every day is a struggle to surviv...

My people go back millions, billions, and maybe even trillions of generations. We have seen every storm to come and every rainstorm to fall.

We have watched them wander here, trying to establish a better life. The desert always takes them in the end.

Mythologies of all different types have regarded us as sacred.

We have seen the rise and fall of many empires, yet we stay the same.

We are know ...