Listening to radio reports of war and other unnatural disasters,

my need for relief and at least a little encouragement to go on

 sends me out into the world to look for signs that all is not lost; 

 and even the cactus I find reminds me that some things prickly

 are designed to overlay beauty rather than pain onto the world,

 and the simple day lily which blooms and laughs in rain or sun

 shouts timidly its message about the necessity of things fragile

for healing a world too busy to notice a bold blooming hibiscus.