from colorless flower

to colorless flower,

following a coded scent

to the plant that supplies

the pollen they feed on.

Over slow centuries the yucca

formed its offerings

to this single moth.

The young moths bury themselves

beneath the bell-shaped flowers

to wait for a wet year

in which the blooming yucca

feeds the next generation

of its pollen-bearers.

The plants’ pollen is carried

only by this moth.

It is only this plant the moth grows on.

They continue through each other.

In the dark the yucca moth

leaves the flower it was born in.