Give Up the Ghost

The agave bloom-stalk used to create this instrument lived under the dual pressures of sun and wind in West Texas. Night in the desert brought respite, allowing the plant to direct more energy into its upward growth. High on a bluff overlooking a craggy ravine, this agave spread seed until its final days, only then to stand barren and lifeless beneath the star-scattered sky. Even in death, the arms of this agave stalk remained joyously uplifted, displaying the tenacity of a landscape that never gives up the ghost.