(Revision)- Wild Desert Tulip

Illuminated by the sun, each petal

Reflecting soft white skin, long wavy

Leaves, a brilliant yellow center,

Drawing eyes to this star shaped beauty,

Tepals olive-mauve, like a blushing woman,

Youthfully bliss stands a wild desert tulip.

 

In a world naked of love,

Like an empty night sky.  Lost

In a habitat far from her garden

Home, wedged amongst scorpions, snakes

And dung beetles.  Still and solemn, drugged

By an orange sun, like a patient

On lithium.  Drained as the arid

Desert soil stands the wild desert tulip.

 

Listless flowers with slowly drooping petals,

Like sand drifting down a dune.  

Weakening stems dragging to the ground,

Limp as a viper’s prey, now frail

Stands the wild desert tulip.

 

An unrelenting sandstorm thrashing

Thinning petals, swirling with the winds.

Nicked by sand grains, aged

Pale ruddy-rose tepals, tried

By the world like a struggling mother,  

Stands the wild desert tulip.

 

Other flowers lost by the earths

Destruction, her roots planted firm, strong

As her character.  Her fragrant life escaping

Each fragment of sand, illuminated by time      

Stands the wild desert tulip.