Fairy Bells

Prosartes lanuginosa

Their ringing isn’t obvious; you need the ear of an anchorite to find them.

Listen for water tricking under rocks, a black-throated green warbler’s five wheezy notes.

Look beneath creased leaves & zigzag branches for a bell of quiet yellow-green

that flares into a six-pointed star, anthers facing outward around a stout style—

all of which must drop away to swell the bell’s heir, a scarlet clapper.