The Air PlantThis tuft that thrives on saline nothingness,Inverted octopus with heavenward arms Thrust parching from a palm-bole hard by the cove - A bird almost - of almost bird alarms, Is pulmonary to the wind that jars Its tentacles, horrific in their lurch. The lizard's throat, held bloated for a fly, Balloons but warily from this throbbing perch. The needles and the hack-saws of cactus bleed A milk of earth when stricken off the stalk; But this, - defenseless, thornless, sheds no blood, Almost no shadow - but the air's thin talk. Angelic Dynamo! Ventriloquist of the Blue! While beachward creeps the shark-swept Spanish Main By what conjunctions do the winds appoint Its apotheosis, at last - the hurricane! Hart Crane (1871-1900) |