THE FLOWERING
Cactus flowers are often remarkably
fine and delicate compared to the rest of the plant. This poem was
inspired by seeing a particularly beautiful example of this in a
plant that my brother owned. Note- I am using the Australian and British spelling of centre. "Their harsh world" refers to their original desert-like habitat.
THE
FLOWERING
From
a bulbous, dark-green cactus,
spiked
in squat solidity,
three,
fine flowers, sudden-full,
burst
forth like festivity.
As
beautiful as any
blossoms
of this world,
with
rings of peaked and fragile
petals,
all unfurled,
that
pass,
so
imperceptibly,
from
sheen of centre white
into
a blush of light,
pale-glowing
pink,
and
vibrate in
the
soft, south breeze
that
brushes on the skin like silk;
they
seem apart, hardly a part
of
this stout citizen of desert heat;
light-born,
ethereal as dawn,
unlike
the hard and water-hoarding
body
of the plant;
and
yet
the
seeming dull can bring
such
shining to its birth;
to
live the ideal needs
to
spread its roots in earth.
In
their harsh world the flowers last one day.
They
grace the light, with night they pass away.
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