Notes for the Cactus Poem
The teddy bear cholla and the fat fat
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Oh buckthorn, devil, whipple, teddy bear
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Oh beavertail, oh pancake, porcupine
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Oh plump saguaro with your hairy arms, I love
Each of you with a different nerve of heart.
Especially you, so trim, so pert, your birds
Cupped in your pits and crotches, little friends
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Oh areoles and aureoles, the orioles
With yellow caps are havering and hot
Making themselves a breeze with their cut wings
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I ask the docent and he indicates
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Oh nation, how you might have been, spread from
So sure an order, with such tendering love
Copyright Credit: Michael Schmidt, "Notes for the Cactus Poem" from New and Collected Poems. Copyright © 2010 by Michael Schmidt. Reprinted by permission of The Sheep Meadow Press.
Source: New and Collected Poems (The Sheep Meadow Press, 2010)