Haibun: Cactus Decay
Have you ever tried to listen to a cactus decay? I’ve never found any discernible sounds. Nor did I see anything that was decay’s active progression. It’s just too slow.
Maybe it starts when the water and nutrients stop coming in from one of her roots? In the early days, she recovered, healed, or fond a set of other roots to pick up the slack? But over time, over her century, she stopped healing and finding alternatives and ways to keep herself from slowing to a halt. Along the way to this halt is when, as a cactus, she started to brown, gray and/or blacken. Slowly, too slowly the green went the way of the unforgiving Sonoran sun. This halting arcs long over the years and decades, never in the lengths of tweets and posts. But when all life has stopped, she can snap in half or drop into her shadow in other ways. This particular cactus was snapped by the desert.
But even broken and decayed, she can still be seen and brought back into life with curiosity and words.
then a cream color,
now a dead filler, remnants.
winter sentiments
Maybe it starts when the water and nutrients stop coming in from one of her roots? In the early days, she recovered, healed, or fond a set of other roots to pick up the slack? But over time, over her century, she stopped healing and finding alternatives and ways to keep herself from slowing to a halt. Along the way to this halt is when, as a cactus, she started to brown, gray and/or blacken. Slowly, too slowly the green went the way of the unforgiving Sonoran sun. This halting arcs long over the years and decades, never in the lengths of tweets and posts. But when all life has stopped, she can snap in half or drop into her shadow in other ways. This particular cactus was snapped by the desert.
But even broken and decayed, she can still be seen and brought back into life with curiosity and words.
then a cream color,
now a dead filler, remnants.
winter sentiments
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| & Haiku: Remnants |
