Cono de Arita (Puna, Argentina) copyrighted © by Ignacio Palacios.
All rights reserved. Image appears here with photographer’s permission.

Almost too perfect, this cone 
rises abruptly out of 
Salar de Arizaro,

as if ancient aliens 
descended from the Heavens, 
left it as a sentinel. 

No condors soaring today. 
Storms on the alpine salt flat 
have driven them all away. 

This dusty rainbow offers 
promises of minerals, 
strange metals, hiding in salts 

too bitter to spice our food: 
rare earth, essential to make 
all our modern devices, 

build autonomous weapons. 

—After the photograph by Ignacio Palacios

Ignacio Palacios

is a freelance travel and nature photographer from Spain who has had the privilege of travelling around the world since 1998 collecting an extensive and hopefully strong set of images of people, places, wildlife, and landscapes across more than ninety countries in all continents. He has received more than one hundred photography awards.

Artist’s website: https://iptravelphotography.com.au

Gary S. Rosin

is a Contributing Editor of MacQueen’s Quinterly. His poetry and haiga have appeared, or are forthcoming, in various literary reviews and anthologies, including Chaos Dive Reunion (Mutabilis Press, 2023); contemporary haibun (Volume 17, Red Moon Press, 2022); Concho River Review, Sulphur River, Texas Poetry Calendar; The Ekphrastic Review; and Visions International.

Two of his ekphrastic poems appear in Silent Waters, photographs by George Digalakis (Athens, 2017). He is the author of two chapbooks, Standing Inside the Web (Bear House Publishing, 1990) and Fire and Shadows (Legal Studies Forum, 2008). His poems “Black Dogs” and “Viewing the Dead” were nominated for Pushcart Prizes.