• The Ocotillo towers proudly over the surrounding shrubs like a Queen crowned with velvet blooms looking down over her Kingdom. The shrubs that huddled close to her feet acted as if they were kissing her feet and when they looked up all they saw was a divine and majestic queen that they admired with all their heart. From the sky she looks even more alluring. The aerial admirers get a first-hand experience of her exquisite grace. They perch precariously upon her limbs. She allows them to rest for she understands their journey was long and hard. Although her limbs look fragile they are as flexible as rubber and as strong as mahogany. Her limbs reach out toward the stars as if nothing could defeat her not the strongest gales and not the heaviest of downpours. She is unstoppable. Nothing can deny her rule. As the season changes from the warm welcoming summer to the cooling autumn, her crown of velvet blooms changes to a crown of poppies and her admirers begin to lose the fondness of the queen they once adored. Now the days are colder and shorter. The birds that once perched upon her arms are no more. As the days progress it becomes colder and colder she feels abandoned by the ones that once treasured her for they have left her warm embrace. And her crown is no more it’s not red ‘nor orange it is gone, it belongs to the earth now. Her head is bare and her feet are cold, all she obtains now is rags on her back and the drapes on her legs. Then, spring for the cold days are diminishing and the days grow longer. The birds begin to return and the earth dwelling critters wander back to her loving embrace. Where she can shelter them from the sweltering heat that is sure to come. She feels blessed in the company of her admirers.
    She wears the most extravagant clothing, her dress is silk but it is not white ‘nor cream but instead it’s serpentine. She contains no flaws her dress billows behind her in the flutter of the parched dessert air. She obtains the most uncontestable beauty that leaves even the most dignified noble dismayed. Her beauty sets candles a blaze, and brings vision to the blind. Although she looks so dignified and compassionate she is concealing daggers of the finest steel under the folds of her gown ready to defend herself against the smallest of menaces. Just the smallest p***k can pierce even the most tempered of armor. Her limbs are like a cyclone frozen in time spewing up out of the ground as if at one point in time she could strike down a man with a single blow. None of the earth dwelling creatures could hope to over throw her majesty.
    Even though the she is the fairest of queens she is also a slave to the earth. The sun is her master and the heat is his whip. She’s constantly lashed by her master. She is given a break from her relentless ruler when he slips into the sweet relief of sleep and so, she does the same. Even though the earth is as hard as obsidian from its un breaking fever, her roots are still able to tunnel deep into the earths crust with ease as if it is a moist pastry. As each day passes her roots bore ever deeper in the earth and deeper and deeper until she encounters the fossil of a forgotten beast, but not even the remains of the living will stop her will to live and burro deep into the crust of our green earth.
    The reason I write about her majesty is because she has helped me through the rainy days I don’t think I could push through without her. I just stare at her and she stares back at me with the same intensity like we fight the same battles for the same war each and every day. Even though we know as each day dawns so does a new battle. She is the reason I hold on each day. It may seem like the words of a fool, but she gives me the strength to clench onto my sanity. So the next day I wake up the same me and not an abomination. The Ocotillo is the reason.