The perfect symbol of this waiting is the night-blooming cereus. Keeper's neighbor, Mr. Beauchamp, has a night-blooming cereus. This is a plant that blooms rarely, and only at night. In Kathi Appelt's novel, Mr. Beauchamp is waiting, waiting, for the plant to flower on the night of the blue moon.
It's long, so I can't post the whole thing here, but check out these first few stanzas and then you'll have to go grab the book from your library (because the last stanza is one of my favorite stanzas of all time). Or better yet, buy the book...you'll want to have it handy for times like these. You may also be able to read the whole poem online at Google Books.
(Also, apologies to Mr. Hayden for the incorrect formatting. Blogger can't handle poetic indentations.)
The Night-Blooming Cereus (excerpt)
by Robert Hayden
And so for nights
we waited, hoping to see
the heavy bud
break into flower.
On its neck-like tube
hooking down from the edge
of the leaf-branch
nearly to the floor,
the bud packed
tight with its miracle swayed
stiffly on breaths
of air, moved
as though impelled
by stirrings within itself.
It repelled as much
as it fascinated me...
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