the perennial bulb

 

Alone and motionless my flower hangs
supported into openness
on my slender, flexing stem.
If you come by tomorrow, see,
I won't be gone
on shopping-errands, busy work,
on urgent, fret-filled needs.
Alone and motionless I call to you -
Look, I am still the same,
Moved into dance by wind and rain,
unmoved by lesser things.

Come, look at what supports me.
A core of strength is buried deep
among the soil you see unsanitised;
you banish it from houses.
Along its dark worm-corridors
I push out rootlets, seeking, drinking,
drawing living fluids into me.

This is all I need to source
my beauty and effectiveness -
(please, spend some time in timelessness) -
this soil, which you despise,
which strengthens me to rise up to the sun.

 

(© 1996-2008 Maria L. Grist)

 

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