Endangered Blooms, by Terry Jude Miller

Photography by Alexis Rhone Fancher (USA) contemporary

waiting for permission from Alexis
​
Endangered Blooms

for a moment in May the cactus 
lets go of the wars that tear the world apart
forgets it’s a thorned thing protecting
lobed-landscape with phalanx and barb

yields form to bud and flower
and yellow euphoria—gives in
to the temptation of beauty--
attracts attention from those who will
violate her for what she offers the desert

for a solitary month she calls to the treeless mounds
look at me
   look at me

Terry Jude Miller

Terry Jude Miller is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet from Houston, Texas. The recipient of many poetry awards including the 2019 Smallest Leaf Award, 2018 Catherine Case Lubbe Manuscript Prize and the Georgia Poetry Society 2018 Langston Hughes Award. His work has been published in scores of publications including the Southern Poetry Anthology, the Lily Poetry Review, and The Comstock Review. Miller is the former 1st Vice Chancellor of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.