WILLIAM ROSS

SPRING/SUMMER ISSUE #06 POET

WILLIAM ROSS is a communication designer who wrote the Introduction to Epistles to the Torontonians (Oak Knoll Press). His poetry has appeared in Bluepepper and is forthcoming in Cathexis Northwest Press. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

DESERT DOXOLOGY

The beavertail, the cat’s claw,

the bunny ear—a rag-tag collection of

animal parts—they all bow

to the sagamore of the desert,

the ancient one casting the longest shadow

in this blistering land

where nothing green should live,

much less rise, a monument

to tenacity.

In the cool midnight air,

the little ones intone the name of

the colossus with magnificent arms raised

to the black Sonoran sky:

saguaro, saguaro.