Trichocaulon cactiforme*
Slow in growth but rather rare
Year on year it’s never altered
Candle shaped and coloured grey,
What a boring plant it is!
Always measuring just two inches
Never mind my loving care
Watering, feeding, heat in winter,
Nothing ever makes it budge.
Other cacti burgeon, flourish
Trichocaulon stays the same—
Or it did, until today!
Scarcely could I credit it
First to see a little offset
Candle shaped and coloured grey
Then, by Jove, there was a flower
Quite two millimetres wide.
Quick! Indoors and get the camera,
Tell the neighbours, phone the press
Trichocaulon cactiforme
Has produced a miracle.
Never now shall I complain,
All my work was not in vain
Nor will you hear me any more
Calling Trichocaulon boring.
* pronounced ‘cac-ti-for-may’.
Pete Crowther
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-particular-potted-plant/
