As I bike around the neighborhood, I often think of Lilac, who loved to run alongside my bike, sniffing the lawns. This is the poemsong I wrote in her honor.
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As I bike around the neighborhood, I often think of Lilac, who loved to run alongside my bike, sniffing the lawns. This is the poemsong I wrote in her honor. |
We deny all beauty to a dandelion
Past its prime
Greying the grass
Like a tuft of shed doghair,
We ignore its starred design
Till it's our own time
To be blown away
Then perhaps
We look more closely.
DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION
Thistles are a step
Below dandelions
On everyone's hit list
But mine
Though I just placed my hand on a spine.
It's the gleam of sunshine
Through lavender
That makes me forgive their thorns.
Wild flowers are far more delicate and transparent
Far more delicate and transparent
Than those we have cultivated
In our own image.
DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION
If I designed a carpet to cover our living-room floor
I'd interweave sweet William, black-eyed Susan,
Scarlet flax, and wild rose
With cosmos, butterflies, squirrels, earwigs, crows
I'd model it after
Our front lawn.
Most people I'll admit
Do the opposite
They turn their lawn
Into a carpet
Weed-free bee-free, bird-free turd-free
No irregularity
Simply, basically, solid green.
Do I offend thee, neighbors,
With my dandelions and clover
Exposing every yard to noxious seeds,
Or is it thee
Offending me
Spewing toxic herbicides
Into air and water supplies
To rid those rugs of weeds?
DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION
YARDRUG YARDRUG YARDRUG
Lilac was a lively, loving, shaggy mutt
Who died with almost no warning.
She'd slowed up quite a bit
Had lost her usual dash.
Then one day she could barely breathe,
Her muscles became flaccid,
She was a limp, cuddly dog doll,
Wanting a few last pats of affection.
And now I watch the early-morning dogwalkers,
Who aren't thinking
That their dogs will one day disappear
As Lilac did,
Aren't contemplating the fact
That they're walking future ghosts.
And I, myself a future ghost,
Watch the flap of ears, the tailwag,
The mussed up fur, the whiskers,
Trying to catch a glimpse of the past
To preserve her image in the present.
Dogs, I think I know the answer
To why you all have cancer.
Beware of sniffing grasses,
It's safer sniffing asses.
You're peeing down the wrong weeds,
You're watering the wrong seeds,
Do it in the living room,
Or on the kitchen floor,
Do it on the NEW YORK TIMES,
But don't go out the door.
Never go outside
And inhale the pesticide,
I know it too well
For our dog
Died.
The Jensens lost Ginger,
Wendy lost Star,
Dogs, you're not safe
Wherever you are.
There's nothing to tell you,
No warning signs,
To keep away from
Those lethal dandelions.
DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION
YARDRUG YARDRUG YARDRUG LILAC LILAC LILAC
(New York Times Magazine, 12/13/92)
The gastric brooding frog of Australia
Swallows its fertilized eggs.
Six weeks later
It regurgitates froglets.
The gastric brooding frog of Australia
Used to swallow its fertilized eggs,
No longer no longer, done in, undone,
Missing since 1981.
DONE IN, UNDONE, DONE IN, UNDONE, DONE IN, UNDONE.
Colorado's bufo boreas,
Immune system collapsed.
Canada's chorus and leopard frogs,
Becoming part of earth's past.
The Costa Rican glass frog, lime green,
The Yosemite toad, the Wyoming toad, all seldom seen.
The mountain frog, the Cascades frog,
Frogs in Ecuador and Bangladesh,
Frogs in pristine ponds on mountain crests,
Frogs world-wide are dying,
Have died.
Two hundred million years or more
Frogs outlasted the dinosaur
Outlasted every freeze and thaw
They're hardier than we are, hardier than we are.
DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION
YARDRUG YARDRUG YARDRUG LILAC LILAC LILAC
DONE IN, UNDONE, DONE IN, UNDONE, DONE IN, UNDONE.
(New York Times Magazine 4/8/84) Human genes
"Are about ninety-nine percent identical
To those of African...chimps and gorillas..."
"...Only one percent of the words in (our) genetic
Message need be altered to change
A human into a chimp..."
NINETY-NINE PERCENT IDENTICAL, NINETY-NINE PERCENT IDENTICAL
CHIMPCHIMPCHIMP CHIMPANZEE
Environmental disturbances suppress fish immunity,
Environmental disturbances suppress frog immunity,
Suppress dog immunity worm immunity, sperm immunity,
Panda penguin rhino chimpanzees,
There's a world-wide rash of immune disease,
Yet it seems the human community
Assumes that we can act with impunity
Presumes to escape scott free
Though whatever we scatter sprinkle spray pee
Rains right back down, upon you, upon me
Fills reservoir aquifer soil and sea
Dampens the global menagerie.
(New York Times, 2/2/93)
In this country alone
Farmers spend annually
Six billion dollars to chemically
Kill insects, weeds, and plant disease.
SIX BILLION SIX BILLION SIX BILLION
More than a dollar per person on earth,
And we receive that dollar's worth
For whatever we scatter, sprinkle, spray, pee
Rains right back down, upon you, upon me.
DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION DENYINGDANDELION
YARDRUG YARDRUG YARDRUG LILAC LILAC LILAC
DONE IN, UNDONE, DONE IN, UNDONE, DONE IN, UNDONE,
NINETY-NINE PERCENT IDENTICAL, NINETY-NINE PERCENT IDENTICAL
CHIMPCHIMPCHIMP CHIMPANZEESIMMUNE DISEASE IMMUNE DISEASE
SIX BILLION SIX BILLION SIX BILLION
DONE IN, UNDONE, DONE IN, UNDONE, DONE IN, UNDONE
We deny all beauty to a dandelion
Past its prime
Greying the grass
Like a tuft of shed doghair.
We ignore its starred design
Till it's our own time
To be blown away
Then perhaps
We look more closely.
Copyright registered May, 1995
Grass Roots -- for responsible lawn care.
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