Amaryllis belladonna

When we started to hang out a lot I pointed out the alien flowers

they came out of nowhere
blooming pink and naked

I'd never noticed them before
but they were everywhere

Amaryllis belladonna
I looked them up
a bulb
they bloom in late summer
like we did

I looked them up again today because I remembered noticing the blooms fade almost as quickly as they appeared

I walked by a patch of them last weekend in Mendocino
they had all been there
bright and odd-looking as ever

the flowers are completely gone now

Apparently it is quite hard to get Amaryllis belladonna, the naked lady, to bloom
the only reliable condition in the wild
unbelievably
is fire

but when they do bloom
they bloom so fast there's no time to grow leaves
that's why they're naked