Needle Point

 
Not all protection is active.
Passive attracts its own victims.
Silence but for pollinator
flight paths,
there is succulence in shadows
beaten from southwest sun.
Don’t leave the trail.
Resist the pull
the pleasure of impalement
on a pin cushion so green
in a land of brown.
Each needle
each rough ridge
a magnet toward
a tattoo unlike all others.
A French kiss in the desert
can’t cost all that 
much 
as another clean
canvas bleeds.