Abstract Thursday : : Blue Agave

Blue agave 
Massively mpressive 
despite its sweet sap, stolen for tequila,
despite the rocky hot soil, leeching its veins,
despite the the sizzling sun frying its flesh.
It survives

There is a reason
why it has sticky sap
why it has thick, fleshy leaves
why it takes so long to nourish a stalk
Storing the milk of life in them
it survives.

It takes it a century 
to grow a stalk 
to push it heavenward
to create sweet sap and fibrous leaves
but once it blooms, scattering its offspring
it dies.

Like most of us,
it lives to die,
but it leaves behind 
a hundred offspring
waiting to bloom again.

I have been warned by the agave
I give it a wide berth but
pricked and bitten by toothy spines.
Blood wells up like a ruby drop.
Yet just as the agave uses its life blood to reproduce
I hope I bloom before I die.