Ring Mountain
(Tiburon Peninsula)
Between boulders on this deer path, narrow
as our feet, stepping carefully
up then down then up again,
we seek the mariposa lily,
a perennial flower
found only on the north face of this ridge.
We envy its survival:
color-camouflaged to match the browning grasses
in toxic serpentine soil;
thriving in what kills other plants—
nickel, chromium, cobalt, asbestos—
and what could kill us.
The ancient people, returning every summer to this site,
gathered the plants and their edible tubers.
We find carvings they left in boulders near the path:
concentric circles with raised centers.
Could these represent the flowers?
Three pale petals forming a bowl-shape
with a dark streak curling around the pistil.
We’ve been together a long time,
have seen each other’s dreams
wither. Now we’re searching
for brief blooms
on this hill of metamorphosed
and risen sea floor,
knowing the flowers
blossom somewhere
regardless of our witness.
Deborah Fass grew up in Los Angeles, went to Japan with a postgraduate Japanese Department of Education Research Fellowship (Japanese Literature, Oita University), and now lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read more.