One Day I’ll Market Your Death
Do not mistake this phrase for one contiguous with threat.
Even its flower knows the theory of attractive quality.
An ideal medium for cochineal production, the prickly pear
shelters a host of creatures we seldom caress.
Which displays greater motility, the cactus or the cochineal?
Life-cycle of attributes, packaging, excitement, the unknown.
In the Aztec language, the word meant prickly pear blood.
The insects’ bodies and eggs yield carminic acid, which mixed with
aluminum or calcium salts yields the red dye.
Reaching for substance is neither metaphor nor effect. Sessile
parasite: carmine. The product of Dactylopius coccus
became the second most valued resource in Mexico, behind silver.
Opportunism unveiling itself, revealed, or, layered greed.
What appears to be fungus is wealth.
One-dimensional / attractive / indifferent. We look together
through the window and observe our separate selves.
This poem originally appeared in a slightly different form in Otoliths, and was included in my chapbook length work, The Circumference of Other, published in IDES: A Collection of Poetry Chapbooks, by Silver Birch Press.
O at the Edges 
nice work
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Thank you.
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I now have a follow button incase you want to follow my blog
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Good. Thanks or letting us know.
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We have plenty of prickly pears around here! Love the poem!
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Thank you. They’re in abundant supply here, too.
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Lived in Arizona several times…have first hand experience with prickly pears 🙂
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My hands (legs, other body parts) have experenced them on numerous occasions. I have gained vengeance by eating them!
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Living in the north, we had a tiny prickly pear on a window sill. The problem was that it was the window over the kitchen sink, and that sill was directly behind the faucet lever. I lost count of the number of times I had to pull those spines out of the back of my hand. I didn’t need red dye.
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I admire prickly pears – they are so persistent and resilient. I’ve seen them growing in the oddest places – high up in the crooks of trees, on shed roofs, etc. Amazing tenacity. I do object to their always seeming to sprout up in the exact places I don’t want them. 🙂
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To answer your question: Cactus. In the form of Tequila, down the hatch 🙂
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Ah, down the hatch! I used to like to sip a good reposado, but those days are gone. Tequila no longer agrees with me. Perhaps it never really did, but I was willing to try. 🙂
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It’s better with Cointreau and lime juice shaken with crushed ice in a glass rimmed with salt.
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That sounds enticing!
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Fantastic poem–it hits me in a place I cannot yet reach on my own. Thank you.
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I’m so pleased it affected you. Thank you.
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I’m fairly sure I’ve said this before, but otolith is one of my favorite words. They even launched an Orbiting Frog Otolith research satellite.
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It’s a great word! And I love the satellite.
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Prickly pairs are big in South Africa too! Nice poem! Thanks!!
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Glad you liked it. Thank you.
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Reblogged this on wwwpalfitness.
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Thanks for reblogging!
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You’re welcome:)
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We didn’t have any prickly pears where I was raised. But it takes me back to my youth, watching Disney’s “Jungle Book” with the scene about the prickly pear and the raw paw.
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I wasn’t around cactus much as a kid, seem to have made up for that in the past decade.
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Great poem 🙂
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Thanks very much.
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Quite the prism you’re writing through today. Interesting…
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And if you squint just so, there’s no telling what you might see. Or not. 🙂
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