Waiting for You at the MYSTERY SPOT, Adrienne Rich, in Fox, 2000
I sat down facing the steep place where
tours clambered upward and others straggled down, the
redwoods outstanding all
A family, East Asian, holding a picnic at their van:
"We are always hungry," the older sister said laughing,
"and we always bring our food"
Roses clambered a rough fence in the slanting sun that
speared the redwoods
We'd gone into the gift shop while waiting for your tour
found Davy Crockett coonskin caps, deerskin coin purses
scorpions embedded in plastic, MYSTERY SPOT bumper
stickers
and postcards of men you wouldn't be left alone with
a moment if you could help it, illustrating
the Mystery Spot and its tricks with gravity and horizon
Your tour was called and you started upward I went
back
to my redwood bench
"The mystai streamed"
toward the
mystery

But if anything up there was occult
nothing at groundlevel was: tiny beings flashing around
in the sun secure knowing their people were nearby
grandfathers, aunts, elder brothers or sisters, parents and
loved friends
You could see how it was when each tour was called and
gathered itself
who rode on what shoulders, ran alongside, held hands
the languages all different, English the least of these
I sat listening to voices watching the miraculous migration
of sunshafts through the redwoods the great spears
folding up
into letters from the sun deposited through dark green
slots
each one saying
I love you but
I must draw away Believe, I will return
Then: happiness! your particular figures
in the descending crowd: Anne, Jacob, Charlie!
Anne with her sandals off
in late day warmth and odor and odd wonder