last year bruce & I went to home depot
and we bought a little cactus
the kind with the beautiful red bulb for a hat
and the gentle spikes down its shaft
He named it Molly
When I left the house for good
he took care of all the succulents for me,
feeding them calcium supplements
turning them toward the sun
making sure their puffy leaves were full with juice.
But I came one day
to find Molly
half dried, petrified
rock-like
her swollen red top
shriveled & black.
Oh, I don't know what happened to Molly,
he said, eyes downcast
And then I took them away.
It was cruel but I took all those sucs away from him & brought them to my new house.
Then I took some back to him
because he could have just killed her,
smashed the pot
decapitated it
burned it alive
he didn't
he just stopped thinking about it
or he just disregarded it
or he liked watching it shrivel, waste away
but it didn't die so maybe there're tender gestures still
Now she's grown three tiny cactus arms,
and she's reaching to sunlight
and she's chubbing up again with water light health summer
but she's still fucking ugly
