This Agave Stalk Has Grown Over Twelve Feet Since Thanksgiving.
The Power of Tequila! — Image by kenne
Agave [Cactus]
by Carol Hamilton
You don’t squeeze tequila
from a pumped up, rubbery leaf.
Nothing is easy in Mexico,
and everything takes time,
patience, muscle. Hacking
and digging and hacking
and a deep pit and fire
and time and time and time.
I lose time, forget it at
the other end of the tequila,
but left to me, that cactus
would still be standing there
on the [Sonora] Desert
undisturbed.
This poem can be found in the book, AGAVE —
“If you like tequila,
you will love the art,
songs, poems, stories,
and recipes in
AGAVE.”
Since moving to Tucson and becoming a Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalist, I know agaves are not cacti, and I live in the Sonoran Desert, not the Sonora Desert. However, since poets like to take poetic license, I will give Carol a pass on this one.
kenne
