Labrador leaves in a jar with a kerchief lid 
release an arctic aroma when simmered on a stove.

Yesterday when fire broke out in the bosque, 
the air had the stench of cauliflower in a steamer 

when water evaporates and the pot scalds.
Although Apache plume, along with clusters of 

western peppergrass, makes fragrant the wash, 
owls that frequent the whole high up the arroyo’s 

bank have already come and gone. Yesterday, 
though honey locust leaves shimmered 

in a gust, no wasp nest had yet formed 
under the porch. Repotting a Spathiphyllum,

then uncoiling a hose, I suddenly hear surf, 
through open slats of a door. Sprinklers come on

in the dark, a yellow slug crawls on a rain-
slicked banana leaf: as the mind flits, imbibes, 

leaves clothed underneath with rusty hairs 
suffuse a boreal light glistening on tidal pools.