Spiked saguaro hold their arms to the sky
in the Phoenix Botanical Garden, partnered
with a lime glass sculpture. Prickly stumps
live low to the ground with artistic glass
bowls, spiders, beach balls,
orbs in a rowboat, and giant
squiggly sculptures planted
to surprise in the Dale Chihuly invasion.
Around a bend, blue and copper designs
meld with the horizon like Georgia
O’Keefe landscapes, other blown glass
sweeps in like tumbleweed sashaying.
Blaring red towers disrupt
the heat of the afternoon
while candy yellow wafers
lay like lily pads on the desert surface.
The artworks are masterpieces,
accenting garden treasures, meticulously
crafted variety. Their fragility
means they won’t outlast barrel cacti.
Glass from sand and back again,
for now cohabiting in the fuming sun.
Stephen Schwei is a Pushcart-nominated poet with Wisconsin roots, who has experienced various journeys and adventures and now resides in Houston, Texas. He is published in Wax Poetry & Art, Beneath the Rainbow, Hidden Constellation, Eunoia Review, Borfski Press, Texas Poetry Calendar, Waco Wordfest Anthology, Chachalaca Review, Michael Moats Nature Anthology, Outcast Magazine, RFD Magazine, The Blue Nib, and New Reader Magazine. He has published one volume of poetry, Bluebonnet Whispers, and a collaboration with Terry Jude Miller, Catch Me at the Carnival. A gay man with three grown children and four wonderful grandchildren, who worked in Information Technology most of his life, he can be a mass of contradictions. Poetry helps to sort all of this out. stephenschwei.com.