THE DESERT QUEEN
Reading edition
Cereus Giganteus; the “Giant Cactus” of the Southwest.
I was Zenobia in the olden time And ruled the desert from Palmyra’s walls; I flung my challenge to imperial Rome So far that still across the years it calls In proud defiance—but my halls are dust; The jackal suns him at the temple door; The wind-blown sands hide street and corridor And heap the palace floor. Forgotten is Aurelian and his might; Above his grave the beggar children smile; And I, who swayed the East in other days, Am mistress now of many a Western mile: Crowned with a coronal of snowy flowers, And armed and guarded with a thousand spears, I dream—while dim mirages recreate In shimmering light the splendor of past years.