PLANTS
- Plants are deceptive. You see them there
- looking as if once rooted they know
- their places; not like animals, like us
- always running around, leaving traces.
- Yet from the way they breed (excuse me!)
- and twine, from their exhibitionist
- and rather prolific nature, we must infer
- a sinister not to say imperialistic
- grand design. Perhaps you've regarded,
- as beneath your notice, armies of mangrove
- on the march, roots in the air, clinging
- tendrils anchoring themselves everywhere?
- The world is full of shoots bent on conquest,
- invasive seedlings seeking wide open spaces,
- matériel gathered for explosive dispersal
- in capsules and seed cases.
- Maybe you haven't quite taken in the
- colonizing ambitions of hitchhiking
- burrs on your sweater, surf-riding nuts
- bobbing on ocean, parachuting seeds and other
- airborne traffic dropping in. And what
- about those special agents called flowers?
- Dressed, perfumed, and made-up for romancing
- insects, bats, birds, bees, even you –
- – don't deny it my dear, I've seen you
- sniff and exclaim. Believe me, Innocent,
- that sweet fruit, that berry, is nothing
- more than ovary, the instrument to seduce
- you into scattering plant progeny. Part of
- a vast cosmic program that once set
- in motion cannot be undone though we
- become plant food and earth wind down.
- They'll outlast us, they were always there
- one step ahead of us: plants gone to seed,
- generating the original profligate,
- extravagant, reckless, improvident, weed.