deserts stalk the earth
at ever-increasing kilometers per year
annihilate soil that nurtures new growth
fill the girlchild’s eyes with grit

Gaele Sobott is a writer living on Darug land in Western Sydney, Australia. Her published works include Colour Me Blue (Heinemann), My Longest Round (Magabala Books) and recent short stories in Verity La, Meanjin, Prometheus Dreaming, New Contrast and the anthologies, Botswana Women Write and Not Quite Right for Us. Her poetry is published in various magazines including Disability Arts Online, Cordite Poetry Review, Plumwood Mountain and New Flash Fiction Review. Her animated poems, I Was Born (Misfit), Dear Rosa and Evacuate have won awards and been screened internationally. She is the founding director of Outlandish Arts, a disabled-led arts organisation that focuses on words as the catalyst for experimentation and improvisation across various art forms.