When unpacking boxes this weekend my fingers tripped over this poem written nearly a decade ago. Amazing how our own written words take us back, back, back, like some strange warped time machine.
Sun-Shiny Beauty
When I was little I used to delight
in the sun-shiny beauty of dandelions.
I would gather them in bunches and bouquets
and give them to my mom with joy.
She always seemed to appreciate them.
One day the story changed.
Someone told me they were actually ugly
weeds that ought to die
at the hands of plant poison.
Plant poison, as it was explained to me,
was a reverse fertilizing product
created to destroy.
It came in giant white plastic bags
that weighed as much as my 4-year old self
for the bargain price of $4.50.
$4.50 was all it cost to kill the dandelions
in our yard for an entire year.
Perhaps the bag could have lasted longer
had I not dumped a large portion of it
over our fence into the neighbors yard.
Their prize-winning roses didn't grow that year,
but I managed to save a few dandelions
from a poisonous fate.
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