How I Rose Against The Thorns.
Updated on March 15, 2011
It snagged me unaware,
hiking National Saguarro forest
with both legs bare.
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I brushed against
some barrel cacti
whose prickly personality
decided to attack my....
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"calf "...punctuated with
exclamation points,
which I made a point
of exclaiming about
in rather loud shouts.
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It‘s the first time
I‘ve ever cussed out
a cactuses offenses,
but my leg resembled a
balding porcupine,
stripped down to his
last defenses.
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I sat alone in the
middle of nowhere,
carefully removing
the sharp spines,
embedded there.
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Hoping some stray
beast hadn't
urinated on them,
or passing vultures
hadn't defecated
over each stem.
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Then I beat feet
back to my car,
as a precaution
against any toxins
it might have
injected so far.
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Later I was left
with eight red blots
that looked a lot
like polio shots.
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Souvenirs of my
desert jaunt that gave
a little more prickly heat
then I'd expected to brave.
©-MFB III
