The Turquoise Ledge by Leslie Marmon Silko

Author:Leslie Marmon Silko
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

The small mesquite lizard in the front yard likes to sun himself on the round stones shaped and smoothed long ago by human hands. The lizard has other good rocks in the sun to choose from but for some reason he prefers the smooth man-made surfaces.

CHAPTER 29

It’s the beginning of June but the early mornings are still cool enough for a walk. Today as I was returning from my walk, and still some distance from my driveway, I noticed two piercing laser-bright red lights in the mesquite tree in my front yard. How strange they were! At first I couldn’t imagine what I was seeing, but then I realized it was the early morning angle of the sunlight that caused odd visual effects this time of the year, and what I actually saw were the hummingbird feeders an eighth of a mile away. The sunlight shone through the red sugar water which acted as a lens to focus the light.

Under the mesquite tree I saw a dozen or more brown ants bringing down a cicada ten times larger than they were. The cicada struggled feebly from the effects of the ant venom, and I noticed the cicada’s second skin was separating for a molt, and part of the old exoskeleton seemed stuck to its wings and tail.

One hummingbird came to the feeder while I sat on the porch. She is the female with the black line on her tail feathers. I said, “Where were you? I missed you.” The hummingbird darted away. I forgot the human voice out loud sounds ugly to the hummingbirds. I should have whispered. She didn’t go far but I didn’t want to disturb her again to ask her the whereabouts of the other hummingbirds and the bees.

The sudden rain last week gave the greasewoods enough nourishment for another flowering this spring. I hope the bees and hummingbirds are not missing, only browsing nearby in all the many waxy white saguaro blossoms and sweet yellow greasewood flowers.

The night-blooming cactus, la reina de la noche in the clay pot, the one I started from a twig, had a single gorgeous perfumed blossom last night and early this morning. Then it was finished.

The reinas are indigenous to the Sonoran Desert. They frequently grow under jojoba bushes for partial shade but this makes them difficult to locate unless they are in blossom. The bulk of the reina is a tuberous root underground; what appears to be a leafless stick pokes up through the ground and the jojoba branches. In early summer the leafless stick forms a bud and just after sundown a large white blossom emerges. Then their heavenly perfume gives them away. The scent is delicate and haunting, never heavy or cloying, and reminds me of the lovely perfume of the white orchid flowers of the Brassavola nodosa from Central America where it blooms for the autumnal equinox.

The scent of the brugmansia blossoms were a disappointment—I expected they’d be as fragrant as the purple datura but they were lovely to see.

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