teapot no. 28, Priti Pot

Little green caterpillar was born atop the highest branch of a pine tree on Mt. Lemmon. In the caterpillar cosmos, the mountain was known as High Place above the Desert. Every evening, snug inside her pine cone home, little green caterpillar listened to the stars and watched the darkness. One night, while her neighbor crawled down to get a bite to eat from the nearby all-night aspen leaf taquería, little green caterpillar began to write a story. She wrote with pine sap ink in a pen she crafted herself from pine needles. To get herself going, she boiled up some of the pungent chapparal her cousin had carried up from the desert. She took a big whiff of it before placing it in the pot. This is the teapot she used--No. 28: chapparal pot, aka, greasewood and creosote--and this is the beginning of her story.

Dedicated to the memory of Priti, long-time desert dweller who lived among the chapparal.