Opuntia engelmannii

Prickly pear

Frank Parker

 

 

Mirror in a Garden

for my daughter

 

I embrace the prickly pear

the dust, the million scratches

the hundred wounded sparrows

fly like arrows

into, out of,

grief

I reach for my cup

and the birds scatter

 

 

 

~~~~~

'To be Frank' is to live, laugh, and love poetry.