Desert Bloom

Catherine Hulshof De La Peña

a body discovered amidst desert blooms.
among the magentas and fluorescent blues
blood soaks indigenous roots.
in a place where sounds don't carry
where we will forever be buried
among pillars and bone
of Aztec sons.
among visions and venom
of death and the afterlife.

ancient spirits seek revenge 
judging by the black fingers that 
strangle the underworld
and the watery shadows 
on yellowed, decaying limestone walls
that shamans use to decipher time.
there are formulas for snake bites
and formulas for sore eyes
but there is only dirt for the dead.

we follow
bird flight overhead
migrando pa'l norte
y luego pa'l sur
we cover our tracks
and any evidence that 
the earth rotates around the sun.

Footnote:  “migrando pa'l norte // y luego pa'l sur” translates as “migrating north //and later south”.

The Science

This poem is an homenaje or homage to the 2023 superbloom, a rare desert phenomenon that occurred throughout the deserts of North America, and the murder of a young field biologist doing research in the Sonoran Desert. The superbloom of bright wildflowers was a result of massive amounts of precipitation, events becoming more frequent and extreme, leading to the loss of homes and lives. The death of this young biologist occurred amidst these events - death amidst life, life amidst death.

The Poet

Catherine Hulshof De La Peña is a Chicana ecologist and poet from San Antonio, Texas. She is currently an associate professor and studies climate change in tropical forests. She combines her bilingual heritage and scientific expertise to explore themes at the intersection of language, culture, and climate change. Her work has been published in Dear Human At The Edge Of Time: Poems on Climate Change in the United States (Paloma Press), Sin Cesar Literary Journal, Sky Island Journal, and featured on NPR.

Next poem: Driving by Julia Vaughan