 John points at one of the mountain laurel trees. He asks me what adjective would I use to describe its bark. I mean, there's going to be a botanical word for it. But I'm trying to come up with an adjective for the texture and the color. I realize he's looking for a metaphor for one of the poems he read me last night. The best I've come up with so far is in that poem for the mountain laurel. You know, limber and striated, I think is what I ended up saying.