Cereus

By Katharine Janeczek

I have long been fascinated
by the brief and beautiful
as an escape from the fear
that everything eventually
falls to ruin.

I once thought moments,
like the stems of purchased flowers,
cut short,
lasted longer.

The cacti cereus looks the part
of a typical desert dweller,
but one unpredictable night a year,
it blooms
into soft white flowers.

Before you, I thought a bright
but secret luminescent,
just barely caught,
bound to escape,
was the height of beauty.