Here in the desert
Making time for something
means turning to the mirabilis multiflora,
the giant four o’clock plant,
for guidance.
It’s a short hike
along gold sandstone boulders,
swirling with vermillion intrusions,
before the four o’clock stops you
in a rolling field sharp
with fishhook nipple cacti
and pencil cholla
guarding the fragile violet
four o’clock flowers.
The Zuni people powdered the root
and in a water base,
rubbed it onto the bellies
of those who suffered from hunger.
At four o’clock, to stop and eat is to miss
the most productive part of the harvest day,
but an infusion of the multiflora
massaged below the belly
makes time
keeping you focused
on what matters.
This is one secret,
but there is more.
Desert hawkmoths pollinate the multiflora.
Their caterpillars are seen as pests
ravishers of other species,
like the tender mariposa lily.
Where is the balance
between the needs of the four o’clock,
those who make time using it,
hawkmoths that fertilize it,
and lilies that are eaten by the hawkmoth?
Each group’s survival
depends on this balance
of one and all,
of tendril
and time