Autobiographical Poem

A Thanksgiving Cactus Turns 40

An ode to a gifted plant, and its survival all these years.

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The happy holiday cactus. Author’s image, 2025.

For my seventeenth birthday, the year 1984, a friend gifted a flowering “Thanksgiving” cactus started from her long-lived plant. It bloomed in fuchsia filigree flowers, often late November but sometimes winter solstice, or Valentine’s Day, and even one memorable Fourth of July!

Renamed “holiday cactus” so whenever it blooms, it is always just in time. The story of this cactus is the story of my adult life. Where I have lived, it has lived What I endured, it endured. When I celebrated or felt lost, I doubt it understood why.

The brown-green pottery pot of its arrival? Long crowded with roots. My cactus strikes a bonsai silhouette, stunted… yet perfect… like anyone raised in benign neglect.

Blossoms just in time for… looks like it’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day this year! Author’s image, 2025.

I was shocked to realize how old this plant is, and had to write a poem for it. It is the only plant that has been with me through it all. I’ve had a lot of plants over the years, often rehome them when I move. And I’ve moved many times across many states. But this one does not get rehomed!

Anyone else have something that has survived it all since early adulthood?