Night-blooming Cereus (ceroid cacti) — Image by Jeffery Banfield
Night-blooming Cereus Fruit — Image by kenne
The Night-Blooming Cereus
And so for nights
we waited, hoping to see
the heavy bud
break into flower.
On its neck-like tube
hooking down from the edge
of the leaf-branch
nearly to the floor,
the bud packed
tight with its miracle swayed
stiffly on breaths
of air, moved
as though impelled
by stirrings within itself.
It repelled as much
as it fascinated me
sometimes – snake,
eyeless bird head,
beak that would gape
with grotesque life-squawk.
— from “Night-Blooming Cereus” by Robert Hayden
Listen to “Night-Blooming Cereus” by Robert Hayden
https://soundcloud.com/william-a-sigler/night-blooming-cereus-by
