Indian Canyons, Palm Springs, California

•••

The shaggy elders in this oasis
bring to mind winterized buffalo
on the Great Plains, their snow-coated
hides bulked up against the cold.

But, more appropriately in this warm
climate, the dead fronds feathering
their lower regions look to us
like thick hula skirts

adorning the desert canyon’s 3,000
fan palms, an impressive assembly
of dancers that, as we walk
among them, might—

should the wind pick up
and birdsong migrate into
gentle guitar fingerpicking—
start to sway,

the ancestral spirits coming
alive, perhaps accompanied
by drumming and singing
of the original peoples,

after we visitors quietly
depart, returning this ancient
rocky cathedral to their
sacred care.

•••

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has called the Palm Springs
area home for eons. Indian Canyon is part of their ancestral tribal lands,
and Palm Canyon is the world’s largest oasis of California fan palms
(Washingtonia filifera). Though the trail can go much farther,
you can take an easy walk about a mile through the palms along
a seasonal creek.