“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.
