Cactus Glory

Where one malingering star looked on

I watched the kindling of a dawn

On hills so far they seemed to be

An outpost of infinity.

I gazed across the wastes of sand

To wonder why so vast a land

Would be despoiled of any trace

Of grass or tree or garden place.

But when the morning high

I thought I saw the reason why

In blossoms so divinely fair

They flashed like jewels on the air.

Was I a witness on this day

To Nature's quite fantactic way

Of staking off a lavish claim . . .

A desert in a flower's name?

(First published in Along the Lane: Dedicated to the memory of Thomas William Larsen, who lost his life in World War II)