The dark messages, the
wisps of smoky intrigue: these
confusing inflections of sex,

this flood of impulses of how to begin
to fumble into the space
of another: we likely never

shall understand any of this
well enough to say
we are not at sea

when faced with it, and yet
we come back to it again and again
behaving as we did the first time.

Count upon the succulents
in your front window
to show you how
to help life thrive.

Watch how they soak in what they need
from water you pour into a pan
below their roots, and how you 
may assist further by shifting them  

toward good light
from their dim past. Understand
how to gently move them
as they grow toward bigger pots

without breaking those roots;
if they flower, learn how to be tender
with the long thread-blooms rising
from their centers:

so much to be said for the succulents;
for the stone plants, the jade trees,
the fierce and hardy cacti. They are
the book of understanding how to care