by Julia Griffin

after Kipling

“‘Yanked from the ground’: cactus theft is ravaging the American desert. …
In a scheme that made headlines, park workers began inserting microchips the size of pencil tips into cactus trunks, which could be scanned with an electronic reader.”
—The Guardian

If you wake at midnight, and hear some odd tap-taps,
Don’t go lighting up your tent or pulling back the flaps;
Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie:
Watch the dunes, my darling, while the Cactusmen go by.

Five and twenty shovels
Digging through the sand:
Cactus for the greenhouse, up in Maryland,
Cactus for Dudinka, cactus for Dubai;
Watch the dunes, my darling, while the Cactusmen go by!

If you see a blemish on a cactus stem,
If you see a Ranger-man (O there’s lots of them!),
If it’s just a teeny mark like a pencil tip,
Leave a sign, my darling—’tis a tricksy micro-chip.

Holes and divots down the trail—engines after dark—
Don’t you start disturbing spadework in the park;
Watch the merry wind farms twirling in the sky:
Praise them to the Rangers while the Cactusmen go by!

If you do as you’ve been told, made yourself some use,
You’ll be give a chollas or pachycereus,
Rattail or espostoa, or a prickly pear:
A present from the Cactusmen, to trade with in Bel Air.

Five and twenty shovels
Digging through the sand:
Cactus for the greenhouse, up in Maryland,
Will it bloom in Oslo? Don’t know till you try—
Watch the dunes, my darling, while the Cactusmen go by!