#saguaros

[nocternalrandomness]

"Golden Desert"

[marseesthisway]

old friends

[spinus-pinus]

Saguaro National Park

2/16/2024 Arizona, United States

[thomaswaynewolf]

[woe-is-monster]

[thewolfnessphotography]

Sonoran desert

Arizona

[gwydionmisha]

Saguaros By Javier Zamora

It was dusk for kilometers and bats in the lavender sky,

like spiders when a fly is caught, began to appear.

And there, not the promised land, but barbwire and barbwire

with nothing growing under it. I tried to fly that dusk

after a bat said la sangre del saguaro nos seduce. Sometimes

I wake and my throat is dry, so I drive to botanical gardens

to search for red fruit clutched to saguaros, the ones at dusk

I threw rocks at for the sake of slashing hunger.

But I never find them here. These bats say speak English only.

Sometimes in my car, that viscous red syrup

clings to my throat, and it’s a tender seed toward my survival:

I also scraped needles first, then carved those tall torsos

for water, then spotlights drove me and thirty others dashing

into palos verdes, green-striped trucks surrounded us,

our empty bottles rattled and our breath spoke with rust.

When the trucks left, a cold cell swallowed us.

[bitchenfries]