800px-Quiver_Tree_Forest_Namibia

You raise
fat, fleshy fingers
in praise of sempiternal sky.

You rise
from unyielding ysterklip,
painting the desert sand
with lucent lemon blossoms.

You lend
your limbs
as quivers and cups.

You stand
like stalwart stewards
of the bountiful earth.

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It’s Quadrille Monday and De Jackson (AKA WhimsyGizmo) is the host at dVerse.
She challenges us to write a poem of exactly 44 words (not counting the title) and to include (this week) the word “quiver.”

*Notes on Ode to Choje
Aloidendron dichotomum, known as the quiver tree, is a tall, branching species of succulent plant indigenous to the Northern Cape of South Africa and southern Namibia).
Known as choje to the indigenous San people, the tree gets its English name from the San people’s practice of hollowing out the tree’s tubular branches to form quivers for their arrows. The quiver tree is classified as critically endangered.  Numbers have diminished steadily, in part because of goats and plant collectors, and also because climatic conditions have affected seedling growth.
“Ysterklip” is Afrikaans (directly translated as “ironstone” in English) and is commonly known as dolorite.

PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons
Simone Crespiatico
Quiver Tree Forest, Namibia