Cactus and pine: Songs of the Southwest

by Sharlot Mabridth Hall

THE DESERT QUEEN

Cereus Giganteus; the “Giant Cactus” of the Southwest.

I was Zenobia in the olden time
And ruled the desert from Palmyra’s walls;
I flung my challenge to imperial Rome
So far that still across the years it calls
In proud defiance—but my halls are dust;
The jackal suns him at the temple door;
The wind-blown sands hide street and corridor
And heap the palace floor.
Forgotten is Aurelian and his might;
Above his grave the beggar children smile;
And I, who swayed the East in other days,
Am mistress now of many a Western mile:
Crowned with a coronal of snowy flowers,
And armed and guarded with a thousand spears,
I dream—while dim mirages recreate
In shimmering light the splendor of past years.