Yucca
Scattered randomly
among chaparral.
Anomalous verticality.
Yellow, spiked leaves --
its inflorescence
rising from the center
of the rosette
like a station tower
lending the air around it
a power of attraction.
Bees arrive
at the pale spires --
circling drowsily,
industrious hovering;
drawn near
the clear syrup
peppered with ants
drowned in traps
disguised as ration.
Pollinated for continuum,
resistant to predation.
Undaunted witness
and survivor of fires.
Dennis Cummings lives in Poway, CA. He has lived in San Diego County all his life and has worked with flower growers there and in Baja California for more than four decades. His poems have occurred in Baltimore Review, Portland Review, Witness and elsewhere.