Dasylirion wheeleri
Common sotol
Ellen Roberts Young
Sotol
on the
hillside
stiff
spike
so tall,
bare,
your
small
blooms
short-
lived.
So
why
are
called
“Lily”
and
named after an explorer
whose mind was on the measuring
of western lands? Would your stiff
spike serve as a sturdy walking stick?
Or do you leave that to the tall yucca?
That other sentinel, looking so like
a cousin at a distance, is no close kin.
~~~~~
Ellen Roberts Young has two chapbooks with Finishing Line Press, Accidents (2004) and The Map of Longing (2009) and one book, Made and Remade, (WordTech Editions, 2014) as well as poems in a wide range of print and online journals. She is a co-editor of Sin Fronteras/Writers Without Borders Journal based in Las Cruces, NM, and blogs at www.freethoughtandmetaphor.com.