Datura wrightii
Sacred datura
Cybele Knowles
When I read that sacred datura
datura wrightii
kótdop
thorn apple
nightshade
moon lily
was/is believed to be a magical plant
by Aztecs Chumash Zuni Jivaros Yaqui Tohono O’odham and more
taken/given as a sacrament by religious authorities
exumas shamans sadhus yogis thuggees etc.
to induce visions
for aid in shape-shifting
or as a doorway
to the flaming world of the dead
a place you need to go to sometimes:
I want to eat some
right away
of course
because I wish to be wise
for me
wisdom is more than a wish--
it’s becoming an urgent need,
but that’s a story
for another time
My friends and family
knowing I lack wisdom
grow concerned.
“You’re not going to eat it, are you?” Wendy asks.
“There’s a reason they call it loco weed,” Eric warns.
“Scopolamine, atropine, hyoscyamine,” Dad chants,
like a witch doctor
naming the toxins of datura
Dad is not a witch doctor
but a biochemist
with an interest in and broad knowledge of plant alkaloids
so basically a witch doctor.
Sacred datura developed poison
as a defense against those
who might otherwise eat it
such as me
this is a pretty good system
it works:
I decide not to eat datura
and go back to looking for wisdom in the usual places: texts
articles on popular science
and self-help books
and Rumi
who has lots of suggestions
although he can be annoying:
feel the shoulder of the lion, he says
no better than eating datura
which can kill you
unless you happen to be
one particular insect:
hawkmoth
coevolved with sacred datura
its nocturnal pollinator
drinking its nectar
transporting its pollen
unhurt by datura’s poisons
but made drunk by them
after datura,
hawkmoths stagger,
flying in large draggy loops.
Perhaps then they are in the Flower World
the dimension that shamans go to
on the wings of datura
so I read
I’m always reading
that’s how I learned about the hawkmoths
whom I’m jealous of now
because they have datura all to themselves.
where is my mystery-containing moonglow flower?
where the petals and leaves that sustain me and only me?
I find sacred datura flowering
in my neighborhood
near my apartment
between the sidewalk and the street:
street, sidewalk, apartment, and neighborhood
all laid down on top of the desert
datura’s native land
I cut a long white bud
and put it in a glass
in the evening when I’m reading
the bud unfurls
fused-5-petalled flower
releasing the scent of lemons
months later
I’m thinking about something I read
and I remember:
of course I am not alone
if I am hawkmoth
then my sacred datura is language
pages are my petals
words are leaves
meaning is nectar
we coevolved: I/us and
our continual beneficent intoxicating language
~~~~~
Cybele Knowles writes essays, stories, and poems. Her work has appeared in The Diagram, Pindeldyboz, Asian Pacific American Journal, Faucheuse, and The Prose Poem. She lives in Tucson and works at the University of Arizona Poetry Center.