My Desert Rose Poem by Daleen Enslinstrydom

Between the sand dunes
and the rocky waterless mountains
I came to look for the treasure of your heart
and in the Namib I will find you, my desert rose

but what I did find was a desolated world,
a lonely acacia tree,
tiger eyes with stripes that are caught in the sun
and the dry wind that blew ferociously against my face,

my eyes caught some hollowed out rocks
that was barely standing in the sand,
found the morning sun
that turned the desert air to purple
and the fog that brought moisture
to the almost bare land.

This land has got a kaleidoscope of different colours
as if the creator did play in a sandbox,
this is a world with mirages
and also a world of miracles

where the welwitschia mirabilis grows to a giant
that flowers in clusters to feed the honey bees.
In the shades of the rocks
succulents are growing
and the flowers of the desert queen looks like
a seamless hat and its luscious and rosy pink
and difficult to believe that these things can even exist
in this kind of desolation.

In moods that vary and completely change
this place draws you into its wonders
and its huge array of being different
as a world that hides its treasures under the sun.

I found a gecko that made its way
over the scorching sand
and it looked as if it was dancing in the wind.
To the people that live here this is home
and they are open people like this country
and this is a country that is vast,
a country with a desert and sea

but I found a different kind of understanding,
a different way of looking at our hearts
when I held in my hand a fragile dessert rose.