Michael Schmidt

1947 / Mexico City

Notes for the Cactus Poem

The teddy bear cholla and the fat fat


Oh buckthorn, devil, whipple, teddy bear


Oh beavertail, oh pancake, porcupine


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


Oh areoles and aureoles, the orioles
With yellow caps are havering and hot
Making themselves a breeze with their cut wings


I ask the docent and he indicates


Oh nation, how you might have been, spread from
So sure an order, with such tendering love
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