Cactus Flower

A Poem by Koiel

This poem is about my heart. I have seen so many of my loved ones live and die, and they have left me here to live alone. They’ve all left me.. My beautiful flowers..

I have a garden.
One with flowers and roots and vines.
It keeps me busy; tending to it every day.
Making sure it’s gotten enough sunlight,
Water, oxygen, love.
My favorite flower in this garden
Is not a flower at all.
It’s a cactus.
It’s not beautiful at all.
I care for this cactus, very much.
It protects itself with thorns and wires,
Wrapped tightly around its small,
Seemingly insignificant body.
I have roses, lilies, wisteria,
Daisys, petunias, and ivy.
And they all die.
They rise like no tomorrow when
The sun is out,
But when it gets cold, and dreary,
They drop dead.
My cactus has witnessed all of this.
And grown from the same soil
It’s beautiful, impatient friends
Lived and died.
And to pay tribute to them,
My cactus never gives in
To temptation.
She waits quietly, growing slowly.
And every now and then, she buds.
And a small, insignificant flower
Begins to bloom between her thorns,
More beautiful than any other
Flower I have ever seen.
And then it withers up and dies.
I have a garden, which is no longer a
Garden at all.
The cactus I call my heart
Is growing, ever so slowly.
But without water,
It will surely perish.