Parry's Agave

Parry's Agave

I slipped out at first light
my daily visitation
the agave at the edge of our home
thirty years patient
through heat and wind fire
grown the length of my forearm
overnight
twelve feet now
reaching toward nothingness

thirty years in waiting
I did not hear you approach
now you stood beside me
in New Mexico light
sweat already beading your brow

you said it looked tired
I said it looked like effort

yellow flowers
cracked open
life against caliche
even as it blooms
leaves curl inward
rosette browning
slow
then all at once

something we thought
might never rise
it is beautiful
to die becoming something