Along two miles, tucked
in one canyon,

is the only land
of the holy ghost ipomopsis,

bright pink blossoms
reduced to a few thousand.

Easy to overlook or confuse with
the striking scarlet gilia.

Forecasts say this ghost may go
in fifty years.

As will I in all likelihood.

I am but one Cassandra,
these flowers the whole chorus.

About Heather Bourbeau

Heather Bourbeau’s poetry and fiction have appeared in The Irish Times, The Kenyon Review, and The Stockholm Review of Literature. Her writings are part of the Special Collections at the James Joyce Library, University College Dublin, and her latest poetry collection, Monarch (Cornerstone Press, 2023), examines overlooked histories from the US West. She is currently working on a poetry collection and interactive map documenting protected lands in the Western United States at risk of losing their protections.

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