A Saguaro cactus is one of the most impressive plants on earth. Saguaros are abundant around Tucson, Arizona, the oldest approaching 100 years old. For good reason they are strictly protected. They are also fragile, despite their tough appearance and longgevity. A small leak in an underground irrigation line may be enough to disturb their delicate desert balance and when you find out, it can be too late.

Losing

We cut it down today.
Its regal arms
No longer hold up the sky,
Sentinal of decades,
Perhaps a century whole,
Supine in a trash heap now,
Only a smoothed circle of sand
To mark that it had been there at all.
I see a hole in the horizon.
We slaked out thirst,
Sating our tall friend, too,
Sharing our bounty out of love,
Not realizing it was drowning
From the inside out.
It still looked much the same
But for a tell-tale shrivel,
Tough and ageless,
Home to birds' nests.
But then it died.
Too much of a good thing
May not be good.
And what is good for one
May not be for another.
Simple lessons.
How much is enough loss to learn them?

-Charlie Neff