Joshua Tree Talk

inner spiritual musing reflections in meeting prehistoric plant life form

Joshua tree 
they call you
prehistoric origins 
your race
some ten centuries aged
your shaggy heads
atop arms scaly skin
--------
humbly
in face of 
desert winter 
onslaught winds
chilling freezing cold
you endure
snow drifts ominous
pelting hail
---------
multi headed tufted crowns
your shaggy heads 
i trudge far from you
toward you
this starlit night, 
eyes wide 
your backdrop 
midnight moon full
ultraviolet neon 
pinkish purple horizon floor 
swimming star’s lights
you sway at each of my trudging
steps
like standing on a ship deck 
docked near ocean’s swaling tides
you move
left and right
with each my approaching steps
----------
with upraised arms
you welcome meteoritic
streaks
and beckon my approach
trustingly
No, i will not hack at you
and tower your magnificent
form
like early settlers did 
for your trunks to build and burn
fences, steam engines
many of your race now gone
----------
moonlight
dimly smudges
ribbons of your hair
my walking dance with you
delivers me right up to 
your mysterious shaggy trunk
i hear your benevolent
low 
groan, 
“welcome”
Your smell is rustic
kangaroo rat 
rustling sound inside 
your thousand year
warm
inner haven frame
-------
Your groans speak of those
who walked 
rode wagons past
140 earth years ago
buzzards, owls who left 
stains of excrement,
dried vermin entrails
mammal catches upon 
your ancient crowns
-------
place my hand upon 
your chest
i hear you speak of 
native ancient humans 
8 decades ago 
light fires near your feet 
and speak their native tongues
-------
your murmurs mix,
swirl in my mind
i see children waking
craggy mountain morning 
light’s dawn chill
laughing throwing stones 
at your friends in games
------
through cold and numb of winter’s
grip
through heat and swoon of summer
sun’s scorch
you stand silent
iconic
monument of an ancient earth