Sonora Saguaros

Sonora Saguaros

   These giants glow
   in moonlight, ghostly

   silhouettes against
   the sky, but I lost

   my love for them
   when as a teenage

   cowboy I was tossed
   off my horse against

   ten thousand thorns.
   I lay bruised and

   battered as I cursed
   both horse and cactus.

   But now in June
   Tohono O'odham

   people harvest the high
   red fruit for wine

   and jam and song
   and dance to bring

   the rain. Then who
   can say that lives

   are not thus saved?

--David Ray

Tucson, Ariz.

COPYRIGHT 2007 National Catholic Reporter
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning