Saturday, April 18, 2015

Ode to the Cereus



Oh how the ridge does come alive
Beneath the mid-day blaze
And fragrant blossoms gently sway
Above the floral stage

The Orchid grows with slender ease
As she drinks the summer rays
Flaunting colors for all to see
Is how she spends her days

Hibiscus has a noble cause
For soaking up the glare
To signify a fellows love
Behind his lady's ear

But hidden underneath it all
Amidst the shades of green
lies the suns one true love -
The Honolulu queen

With quiet grace she sips the light
-the other flowers abhor-
Her modest nature stirs delight
The sun, he does adore

He burns and burns, each ray for her
While others seem to plunder
She yearns and yearns, yet hesitates
He soon begins to wonder

The rest, you see, translate his love
In bright exaggerations
But only Cereus, in modest grace
knows anticipation

"Please, my queen, take your share -
You have not but a thorn"
And to the sun she only smiles
Her love for him is torn

What tragic fates of time and love
Could keep her from his light?
A secret that she dare not share -
She only blooms at night

The Roses and the Lilikoi
Try to gain affection
But the sun no longer sees their color
Nor looks in their direction

The days they pass, the sun he waits
High up in the sky
Until one day his heart does break
And slowly starts to cry

"Why, my love, oh why can't you -
Just open up your heart?"
And to his tears she says but this;
"We're half a world a part"

For when the day upon the ridge
Surrenders final light
There lives a world beneath the stars -
A still and quiet night

In all his youth, his brazen glow
He felt that he was king
But by his sight, through vanity
He could not see a thing

And still he burns, just like before
Upon the floral stage
But tempered by his newfound plight
His light he now does gauge

The Plumeria and the Morning Glory
thirst for more and more
And yet he rations all his might
To visit his amore

The fates of time and circumstance
Has broken many a-will
But by the moon he steals a glance
Upon the quiet still

And there she reigns, as others sleep
Tired from the day
His bonnie queen does see him peek
And whispers "come what may"

From months of patient nourishment
She gathers up her plume
The time it comes but once a year
Her heart begins to bloom

A sight which must be earned through time
He see's was worth the pain
Her ivory petals delight the stars
as view begins to wane

The sun he stares from worlds away
A truth he understands;
It was not he that gave to her -
But she, his growth demands

For love, you see, like time and light
can travel near and far
His heart can burn throughout the night
And reach her as a star