Cactus and pine Author:Sharlot Mabridth Hall Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SPRING IN THE DESERT Silence, and the heat lights shimmer like a mist of sifted silver, Down across the wide, low washes where the strange sand rivers f... more »low; Brown and sun-baked, quiet, waveless, trailed with bleaching, flood-swept bowlders; Rippled into mimic water where the restless whirlwinds go. On the banks the gray mesquite trees droop their slender, lace-leafed branches; Fill the lonely air with fragrance, as a beauty unconf essed; Till the wild quail comes at sunset with her timorous, plumed covey, And the iris-throated pigeon coos above her hidden nest. Every shrub distills vague sweetness; every poorest leaf has gathered Some rare breath to tell its gladness in a fitter way than speech; Here the silken cactus blossoms flaunt their rose and gold and crimson, And the proud zahuaro lifts its pearl-carved crown from careless reach. Like to Lillith's hair down-streaming, soft and shining, glorious, golden, Sways the queenly palo verde robed and wreathed in golden flowers; And the spirits of dead lovers might have joy again together Where the honey-sweet acacia weaves its shadow- fretted bowers. Velvet-soft and glad and tender goes the night wind down the canons, Touching lightly every petal, rocking leaf and bud and nest; Whispering secrets to the black bees dozing in the tall wild lilies, Till it hails the sudden sunrise trailing down the mountain's crest. Silence, sunshine, heat lights painting opal- tinted dream and vision Down across the wide, low washes where the whirlwinds wheel and swing;— What of dead hands, sun-dried, bleaching? What of heat and thirst and madness? Death and life are lost, forgotten, in the wonder of the spring. IN OLD TUCSON In Old Tucson, in old Tucson, How ...« less