31. Papyrus
30. Pulp
29. Apple
28. Sugarcane
27. Hydrogen
26. Oak
25. Kenaf
24. Wheat
23. Banana
21. Rope
AT DEVIL’S GULCH
Old rope swing straddles
the summer pool—to entice
another generation.
20. Wood
HARVEST TREE
The woodpecker knocks.
She answers the door.
Not a soul in sight.
19. leaves
IN DEEP SUMMER
The susurring leaves
whispering summer secrets
and fall platitudes.
18. Linen
THANKSGIVING
Irish linen, bright
as sunbleached clouds draped on shrubs,
a post-prandial nap.
17. Birch
PALEOGRAPHY
Messages written
on birchbark, only the wind
will read their sorrow.
OLD FLAME
Notes scrawled on birches
with only the wind to sing
their lovesick passion.
WINTER SOLSTICE IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
Soviet sauna,
birch whips thrashed darkness from us.
Then roll in the snow.
GLASNOST
We drink new birch beer,
drunk on tree sap and goodwill.
Detente and friendship.
16. Mango
ANCIENT HAWAIIAN TERRACES
Below Merwin’s farm
Mangos rot, a cloud of fruit
flies scribe air poems.
OLD BEDS
Mangos and taro
line the minehune ponds.
Fish leap into air.
15. Hemp
SATURDAY NIGHT IN THE MIDWEST
Roadside ditch harvest,
teens roll doobies from hemp leaves.
An elusive high.
ELEVATED PROSE
She writes poetry
on hemp paper with stoned words
seeking a new high.
FRIDAY NIGHT
At the dispensary,
the line goes around the block,
a gray haired party.
14. Rice
SPORTS INJURY
Rest, ice, compression
and elevation—mantra
of locker-room jocks.
13. Palm
HURRICANE SEASON
Symphonic music.
Palm fronds orchestrate the storm
and bow to the beach.
AT HEMINGWAY’S PLACE IN KEY WEST
Myriad cats
hunkered down with typewriter.
Palms whip the windows.
IN PALM SPRINGS
Desert fan palm seeds,
enough to feed a village,
none are harvested.
12. Maple
LOVE IN A TIME OF SUGAR
Maple syrup, sweet
tears, the sorrow of old trees
drizzled on breakfast.
SAP SEASON
Maple syrup weeps
in the snow, sweet cones of ice
to seduce the tongue.
11. esparto
SUMMERTIME
Floppy summer hats,
espadrilles, picnic baskets—
esparto grass dreams.
Esparto grass dreams—
espadrilles, picnic baskets,
floppy summer hats.
10. jute
POST NEO-COLONIALISM
My grandmother cursed
the Anglo-Saxons & Jutes
when she meant England.
When I was a child,
Cromwell was the antichrist.
Dead 400 years.
This is how I learned
history through her curses—
alternate world view.
9. Bamboo
MASKED BANDIT
In bamboo forests
pandas sumptuously dine
on basal grasses.
Every hundred years,
flowers bloom, then drop seed bombs,
in a mass die-off.
Picky pandas dine
on another species
and so, carry on.
Arrow, black, water,
yellow bamboo on the menu.
He eats shoots and leaves.
8. Flax
TRIMMING THE WIND
Blue-eyed flax opens
to a dream of linen clouds
lufting in the wind.
7. Cotton
LAMENT FOR LAKE TULARE
The Cotton King
drained a lake because he could.
Tears of ghost tules
rustle on old shores
remembering the song
of water and wind.
After a winter
of epic rain, the lake remembers
its old shoals and shores.
6. Carbon
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
The earth's mantle hugs
carbon until it implodes—
adamantine light.
DYSLEXIA
Carbon or cabrón
a small typo butts the eye
with horns of meaning.
5. coconut
SEYCHELLE HEARTS
Twinned heart of the sea
coconut floats in the surf
catching a rogue wave.
4. Yucca
FLOWERWORKS
Yucca bells explode
against an indigo sky
on 4th of July.
3. Reed
A CORSAGE OF STARS AT SUNSET
Reeds thread the hemline
of the lake to the silken
prom dress of the sky.
2. Mulberry
COCOON
New mulberry leaves
feeding silkworm hunger—
spin shrouds of rebirth.
1. Cork
THIRSTREE
Cork oaks circling
the shoreline of Lake Merritt
to bottle their thirst.
TOURIST TRAP
Lone bison contemplates
latest tourist victory
Settles his score card.
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