Phytolacca decandra
(Pokeweed)
By: Miracle Man
4/27/2020
Things allowed to grow in parts of our large yard
are Poke Weed and Wild Onions.
I allow them space, near the patio and others question why?
Last year Poke weed, at maturity, reached the height of seven feet,
and fall berries were a treat for the Mocking birds, and Robins.
But most of all it is one of the remaining links to my childhood.
Each spring we would go cut the young emerging Poke shoots for “poke sallet”, And the Wild Onions mom would scramble with eggs. Our chickens pecked the table scraps and laid the eggs and the Onions were free. Sometimes I hear music of tree frogs on a nearby Hackberry and I’m reminded of summer nights and two young brothers sleeping outside on a pallet under a Weeping Willow tree
because it was cooler than inside the house.
while trying to find
the founding fathers
without bothering
if George W
(not Bush)
separated
female
from
male
i knew that the oh
so what do you
know count
these beans
declaration
was written
on hemp
paper not
because
we wanted to supercede
that what would come
to pass with recent
states saying don't
keep toking cause
i'm jonesin so
pass the
weed
we'd
all love to share Dylan
and the Band singing
Rockin Chair but
i also became
aware that
that same
page of
was in
fact
written with the ink
of the American
pokeweed so
glorifying the
british born
fathers for
their sons
George W
Bush
should thank his
being by the
hemp lines
that kept
Bush Sr
afloat
on the
ropes
of his
parachute
though hispanic
in language her
skin is the color
of the black beach
of Thira where
many a time i
saw the full moon
rise and cast
a mirrored image
upon calm seas
as now as from
the last twenty
nine and a half
days have passed
she has begun her
lunastration once
again so as she
will until no longer
see her red tide being
pulled by the moon
following laws
ingrained in
women wearing
a pokeweed
stained stretched
canvas cloth
soon to
let nature
paint by
drops
Pokeweed waits
underground, snow crusts
small greenish white flowers, leaves entire
and alternate, black berries
poisonous, ripe late.
Waits patiently past February
when the sun stays up in the sky more than January
and six more months after that
past the peepers keeping watch
for every passing dog or truck.
We await our time
or have had it, or are having it.
Body in slow, not precipitous, decline.
Expend ourselves on work and wine.
Percent of budget expended, year to date.
I heard a redwing this morning
who might have been choosing a nest site
holding the spot against chevrons from the south.
Choosing the best site, away from predators, near water,
in sight of seed and buds.
It happens that when the pokeweed fruit pokes out
the chicks were born, the fledglings flown
leaves already leathery
and the weather has the faintest
hint of January's cold snow hold.
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