Queen of the night

“Night-blooming cereus is the common name referring to a large number of flowering ceroid cacti that bloom at night. The flowers are short lived, and some of these species, such as Selenicereus grandiflorus, bloom only once a year, for a single night.”

The evening sky

Exhales a blackened sigh

Of midnight relief;

Driving the darkness to unfurl its wings.

The exhausted day rests

And curls her limbs before the rebirth

Of tomorrow’s whispered awakenings.

The lighted cities cast creeping shadows

Behind the footsteps of men’s borrowed sorrows,

Like loyal dogs in step with their master’s call.

And I have heard the howl

Of sleeping men and women

As they have gazed at the moon

And made lunacy their daily concubine.

And I have seen the adolescent tongue of revolution

Incarcerated,

Forgotten,

Silenced by media asylum,

Like rose buds slain prematurely

Before they reach full bloom.

And I have seen visions televised on screen

Of tanks

And bombs

And guns

Aimed at the countless unknown;

This, is how democracy is shown.

And as I wrestle with the vines

Of deafening solitude

There is a moment

Of quiet clarity

In the serenity

Of the ordinary.

I hear a faint echo

That encourages my feet

To pirouette on my axis.

Bringing me face to face with a foreign beggar

On the corner of Saint Mary Axe.

The beggar repeats the words wrapped within the echo;

”Get home safe child.  She has come!”

His wild eyes communicate with the same manner of urgency

And from the blackness of his pupil,

I came upon the white fragrant flower of revolution;

The splendid terrible wonder

Shone only by the moonlight

Amidst the darkness and terrors

Of our laboured nights –

She has returned.

She is in bloom.

The queen of the night.