Yucca

by Sienna Taggart

paperbag bush, prickly poppies,
              creosote
              ironwood
blue phacelia               bitter root
—the desert’s offspring sewn together,
rustling            whispering their brisk secrets
up the mountain.
I taste them on my tongue when
rain beckons and calls
              feel them on my palm,
              their gummy milky sap
drying on my fingertips          I walk
              climbing higher to the Yucca
              with her sugary
              waxed cream flowers sheathed in sharp points,
              roots swelling with sudsy pulp;
I stand before her threadlike neck
              concealed behind a bladed fan
              cup my hands
              as wind pulls velvet tears
              from her cheeks. 

Sienna Taggart (she/her) is a Creative Writing and English student. Her work has appeared in Dundee University Review of the Arts and The Ekphrastic Review. Sienna lives in El Paso, Texas, with her family and spirited pup, Ronin. She can be found on Instagram @siennaraine_