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The City’s Lungs
The Rio Grande bosque is a cottonwood forest running through a desert city. We forget that on purpose, then remember.
Elena Cruz · March 14, 2026 · 5 min read
Burque is a desert city with a river in it, which is a different sentence than it first sounds. The Rio Grande ain’t wide here. Braided, managed, sometimes a trickle behind the levees. What it gives us is the bosque: cottonwood, willow, saltcedar that goes gold in November and holds hawks all year.
The bosque trails are where we go when we need to remember this city ain’t only asphalt. Cyclists, dog walkers, people who know which sandbar the herons use. In autumn the light is the color of tea. In monsoon season the ditches run and the air smells like wet dust — best smell in New Mexico.
A cottonwood is a clock. When it goes gold, the balloons are coming.
