Pampas Grass Near Malibu

Around my friend's house near Malibu On a hillside where they hardly grew before The 'God's candle' plants appear this Spring They take position like leafy soldiers Surrounding the Castle Elsinore Their habit of growth is changing Something always happens in the wild The pampas grass plants have hatched a plot To spread themselves across this slope But all they want is to let more sun Shine through their blooms of floss Something new happens in the wild The succession is coming on in waves One who stays on this slope remembers A time when they were few Then came a late winter promise Many shoots under gloomy skies Promise of profusion in spring A breakthrough in their collective plan A vigorous strain that outgrew the rest Always something new in the wild Though change takes time to incubate '...'God's candle' Your time has come in succession you march up this hillside and wither in a season with your backlit halo in slanting gold light you don't lord it over the undergrowth your climax does not doom you to fall under the axe' One who walks this slope Sees them grow to dream-catchers of sunlight Sees the promise of winter fulfilled The earthly corolla of their filaments celebrating the sun