A while ago, I was inspired by Carol Ann Duffy’s Valentine and wrote this poem. I have a tricky relationship with poetry. It was all I used to write until I discovered fiction and what I wanted to say. I wrote about the things I could not say because it was easier to say in words. It was easier to have different kinds of meanings when placed in stanzas so that people I was writing about wouldn’t know I was writing about them.
I thought I would give up poetry at some point because for a long while, I was not writing poems. But I guess this ability came back, so here it is.
Cactus.
I would give you a cactus.
Not flowers, cards or chocolates.
A cactus is a world unto itself,
A symmetrical ecosystem.
It is life, sustained,
Strong and sturdy.
It establishes boundaries with its thorns.
When it so chooses, it blooms.
Perhaps after adversity,
if you are inclined to use it as a metaphor.
But it is independent and lone.
Roses are cliched.
Daisies are too optimistic and
Lilies are naïve and blind to truths.
A cactus is what it is.
It does not have to justify itself.
It does not beg for your understanding.
It bows before no one, and it remains when all is gone.
I give you a cactus.
No flourishes or exaggerations.
If you take it, you accept it
Like how you accept me.