Saguaro

A Saguaro Cactus at sunset. Aside from their immense size, countless shapes and their other worldly beauty, I was struck most by their age, their resilience to the test of time, their relationship to a particular place. Thus, a poem that attempts to capture these enduring themes.

I stand among these ancient pillars,

Monuments to the test of time.

As silent witnesses they rise

High above the desert floor. Old

As the stars, they point to the heavens.

A testament to their longevity

In a world limited by time.

Enduring, Growing, Reaching

For the darkening sky.

Cast in absurd shapes,

Human in their form,

Alien in their presence.

A sight as strange as men can see.

They appear to move in the fading Twilight,

A marching force without Formation.

Where the shadows bend to black.

Where endless sunrises and sunsets,

In this desert space,

Come and go in a timeless place.

Transcending all earthly bounds,

Mystical apparitions from a forgotten age,

Mocking the limitations of my mortal life.

Descendants of the Tohono O’odham,

The Pascua Yaqui, the Apache.

They remind us, in the blue hour,

That the spirit lives in perpetuity.

If we take the time to look

For those who take the time to see.