Silent, Standing, Ubiquitous
Pastoral scene of the gallant South.
We sit beneath the spreading boughs,
Contemplate their kingly state,
The contrast of youth and endless years,
A scent of Magnolia, sweet and strong.
Its all pervasive smell is nature‘s song.
See the beetle crawl to do its bidding,
Carpallated pistils packed and waiting,
Waving gently in the evening’s quiet weave,
Ready to be carried by that peripatetic pilgrim, unknowing,
To the stamen of some distant, yet receptive being,
Absorbing starlight, standing silent, with eager greeting.
Why do we dare the inscrutable, to judge
The world as though it is ours, while Magnolias
Have stood upon this plain for a hundred thousand years?
We give its attributes a myriad of names: Hu po, Magnilol,
Koboku, call them cucumber bush or tulip trees,
Its multicolored petals undulating in the breeze.