Cereus Plant
The cereus plant can be found on cacti and can grow up to 15m high. The wind sometimes bothers the cereus plant. The significance of this plant can be that there is hope of life outside of the dust. This means that life can grow in dust for a short time and it's a sign that people can go to California without getting hurt.
Poem: Night Bloomer
Mrs. Brown's
Cereus plant bloomed on Saturday night.
She sent word
After promising I could see it.
I rubbed my gritty eyes with swollen hands.
My stomach grizzled as I
Made my way through the dark
To her house.
Ma wouldn't have let me go at all.
My father just stood in the doorway and
Watched me leave.
It was almost three in the morning when I got there.
A small crows stood around.
Mrs. Brown said,
"Teh blosson opened at midnight,
big as a dinner plate.
It took only moments to unfold."
How can such a flower
find a way to bloom in this drought,
in this wind.
It blossomed at night,
when the sun couldn't scorch it,
when the wind wa quiet,
when there might have been a sip of dew
to freshen it.
I couldn't watch at dawn,
when the flower,
touched by the first finger of morning light,
wilted and died.
I couldn't watch
as the tender petals burned up in the sun.
September 1934
Poem: Night Bloomer
Mrs. Brown's
Cereus plant bloomed on Saturday night.
She sent word
After promising I could see it.
I rubbed my gritty eyes with swollen hands.
My stomach grizzled as I
Made my way through the dark
To her house.
Ma wouldn't have let me go at all.
My father just stood in the doorway and
Watched me leave.
It was almost three in the morning when I got there.
A small crows stood around.
Mrs. Brown said,
"Teh blosson opened at midnight,
big as a dinner plate.
It took only moments to unfold."
How can such a flower
find a way to bloom in this drought,
in this wind.
It blossomed at night,
when the sun couldn't scorch it,
when the wind wa quiet,
when there might have been a sip of dew
to freshen it.
I couldn't watch at dawn,
when the flower,
touched by the first finger of morning light,
wilted and died.
I couldn't watch
as the tender petals burned up in the sun.
September 1934