The Meadow’s Keeper is a society poem, a reflection on people and a celebration of all the stunning names given to officially declared noxious weeds.
The Meadow’s Keeper
At odds weeds / officially declared noxious /
but free to thrive
knit the sun and rain-spoiled soil,
one thousand shades of green with splashes of
white, yellow, orange,
red, purple, blue.
Alligator Weed beside Bear-skin Fescue,
Bathurst-burr next to Nodding Thistle
Onion Grass alongside Hawkweed
Japanese Knotweed tickling Paterson's Curse
Poverty Weed neighbouring Ragwort
Wheel Cactus cosying up to Fireweed.
The Meadow's Keeper / officially proud /
but free to eradicate
tends tenderly,
minds / alongside
one thousand bugs, worms, creepy crawlies
insects, rodents, birds crowning
Horehound and Giraffe Thorn
Pampus Lily-of-the-Valley and Chilean Cestrum
Bridal Creeper and Prickly Pear
Devil's Claw and St. John's Wort
Bindweed and Hardheads
Sweet Briar and Soldier Thistle.
Weeding weeds / officially an option /
but out of the Meadow Keeper's imaginings
would eradicate,
uproot
one thousand drops of eccentricity, colour, beauty,
breath, life, love.
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