The first warm day.
The mountain hums with insects
and the valley with motorcycles.
Between twists of old coyote scat
and dried grass curled
tight as pubic hair,
close to the ground, the trailing
arbutus’ fragrant parts
begin to open.
Dave Bonta (bio) often suffers from imposter syndrome, but not in a bad way — more like some kind of flower-breathing dragon, pot-bellied and igneous. Be that as it may, all of his writing here is available for reuse and creative remix under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. For attribution in printed material, his name (Dave Bonta) will suffice, but for web use, please link back to the original. Contact him for permission to waive the “share alike” provision (e.g. for use in a conventionally copyrighted work).
Curious: is it supposed to be “pubic” and not “public” in line 6?–although, given that I was expecting “pubic” and the “public” caught me off guard, it’s also effective as is to get the reader’s attention.
Oh yeah, thanks — that would indeed be “pubic.” (And I can’t even blame an autocorrect!)
tightly curled pubic hair is an amazing way to put it! made me smile for a long while
Thanks! I should figure out what that species of grass is. I’m almost certain it’s native. It seems to grow only in very hot, dry environments.