Yes, a stark, bleak background emphasises the harshness of the cross.
And in the desert scene, the phallic cacti suggest most cruelly painful penetration!
I like the cruel thorny vegetation around the foot of the cross too -
in my poem 'The Wheel', I mention
'these stinging-nettles close to my bare legs
(they flourish in this stony ground, disturbed,
fed regularly with girls’ blood)'
And in the desert scene, the phallic cacti suggest most cruelly painful penetration!
I like the cruel thorny vegetation around the foot of the cross too -
in my poem 'The Wheel', I mention
'these stinging-nettles close to my bare legs
(they flourish in this stony ground, disturbed,
fed regularly with girls’ blood)'