I had that happen a couple of times while beta-testing this cat. It's caused by a corrupt, hidden .DS_Store file in the Desktop folder.
Run this in the Terminal app, log out and back in, and reset your Desktop icons.
rm ~/Desktop/.DS_Store
Once that's done, make a copy using this Terminal command:
cp ~/Desktop/.DS_Store ~/Desktop/.DS.Store.bak
Then, use this Terminal command to restore it when the corruption happens again:
cp ~/Desktop/.DS_Store.bak ~/Desktop/.DS.Store
Follow this command by an OPTION-click & hold on the Finder's Dock icon and select Relaunch. That will restore the view.