When, before the desamor,
we bloomed on spiny flesh
the desert cool at night, starlit
bright, a path ahead, before
before with fingers stained
and stung, we heartbled dead
Now riled, the desert burns
encabromada in me alone.
The desert, dry, remains
in prickly pear and me.
Today Dora inspires us to use words in Spanish from a list created from a poem by Sandra Cisneros with words that has its own translation in terms of color etc.
My choice was to start from:
Desamor. Heart bleeding like xoconostle fruit and Encabronada/o. A volatile, combustible rage.
The definition from the fruit of a cactus worked for me as a metafor. I imagined a traverse through the desert starting out well, but ending in loss, and rage.
Björn Rudbergs writings 
We both chose two words the same, desamor and xoconostle, only I added a few more to them, Björn. I like how the fruit of a cactus took you through the desert, and the way it evoked loss and rage. I love the idea of blooming on spiny flesh, and the internal rhymes of:
‘the desert cool at night, starlit
bright, a path ahead…’
and the phrase ‘heartbled dead’.
Thank you… yes I have tasted the fruit of the cactus…
The opening alone is worth a thousand Arizona desert suns:
“When, before the desamor,
we bloomed on spiny flesh . . . .”
The hint of love’s dissolution on such a “spiny” surface bleeds into the following lines. Beautifully atmospheric use of the Spanish, Björn.
Thank you… the definition of the heartbreak and the color of the fruit really helped.
“we bloomed on spiny flesh”
best phrase for hard times
much♡love
It was easy to visualize the emotion in this. Thanks!
Great use of both words. Nicely done Bjorn.
Really invokes a feeling of a place with your poem. Well done.
Your prompt words are very well incorporated into your poem, Bjorn. Well done.
A magical twisty love-knot-by-Not-rage-wrought: “we heartbled dead / now riled” Been there encambromada’d that …
Concise and sharp, Bjorn.
loved it 😍❤️
A lovely use of metaphor. In Mexico, the fruit of the prickly pear is “tuna.” A must less poetic word…
I loved the way the two leaves of this “cactus book” hinged around your use of “before” at the end of stanza 3 and again at start of stz 4, reinforcing the shift between “when” at the beginning, and a raging, disillusioned “now”.
I trust it’s all fictional, yet fiery!
It is written mostly from a fictional perspective… it was a long time since I was left like this (in my youth)
My youth seems to have been different to yours Björn, I have not encountered a true desert nor prickly pears growing in it, but I did encounter prickly pears elsewhere and encountering a glut of fruit, I did the very English thing of seeing what kind of jam it made lol
Having just cut down a couple of these in my garden, I totally understand the rage. Those damn spikes.
This is so good, Björn. Spiky and succinct.
Great poem, Bjorn!
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
Very literary, in an extremely difficult challenge…