Simmondsia chinensis
Jojoba
Erec Toso
Ode to a Sonoran Jojoba
Oba Jojoba
Most lovely helpmate companion
Succulent soap and hero unsung
How many whales swim free
Because of your gifts of golden oils?
Generous to a fault
A sprung Persephone
Humble and enduring and slightly waxy
A blooming god in the harshness of heat and light
Pear shaped leaves
Turk’s cap of green
You rule the sands
And yield secrets to mortals
Without complaint or repayment.
Forgive me when my eyes seek the hawk
Or the track of a lion
Or the glamour of a cereus.
It is you
Homespun bloom
Patient continuity
That I come to
In my pain
Of scrapes in need of antiseptic
Of earthly ailments
How could I love you more
Revere your woody arms
Your cloistered roots
Your coffee colored fruit
Your sustaining alchemy?
When I leave the land of the blind
And give up the acting the fool
I will join you
Delighting in the common
The giving
The sacrifice
Of sublime
Modesty
Bow to the sun
To give limbs in harvest
Rising and falling in grace.
~~~~~
Erec Toso continues to study his back yard with the help of his teacher, Mondo the black cat. Progress is slow, his teacher reports, but there is hope in the curling mesquite beans and moments of verse.