​Elegy for Desert Flowers

By Philip Bulman

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A 19-year-old pregnant Guatemalan woman died from injuries suffered when she fell trying to climb the U.S. border wall. Medical personnel tried to deliver her baby, but were unsuccessful. March 2020

Now it is too late
to greet Mirian by name,
too late for her to tell
us the name of her unborn child.
Unrooted, they left no petals
in the sands of sorrow,
only nameless tracks.
Someday I will cross
my final border
free of desert dust.
I expect Mirian will meet me
on that eternal day.
All three of us will dance
as she chants and sings
her baby’s name.

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Philip Michael Bulman, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, currently lives in Maryland. His poems have appeared in Eastern Structures and Gargoyle.

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