Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Day 230: Love Poem to a Prickly-Pear Cactus

They line the school zone near mi casa, 
scattershot grove of hang-dog, bearded palms, 
proof positive no-one survived 
the second frost—the one that went

behind my house while the lights were all on 
and my wife and I lay awake 
and roofied half a dozen junipers 
half to death and made my beloved cactus

(I loved that cactus) grow
pads from a necrotic trunk that had got piled up so bad 
the codes guy said jesus you've got three days 
not seven days just three to avoid getting fined

or whatever it is cities do to people
who leave their bits and pieces lying out—unchanged.

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