Kindred

rebellious, luscious, unrepentent
vibrant yellow ALIVE
drenched in sunshine
butter
honey
delicious
savory
sensual
wild
wanton
stubborn
self-sufficient
spreading
overwhelming
overtaking
unself-conscious
unself-serious
frivolous
relentless
soft
warm
lovely
beautiful
beloved
wondrous
comforting
necessary

welcome gifts of petal gilt
later balls of joyous emphemeral seedlings
that fly off in piece or in whole
romances by a breeze
or blown away by a child imagining worlds

my mother loved them so
they delighted her and annoyed my father
”not part of the lawn” he decreed
”ah, but they are so pretty” she observed
she taught us to rub them softly on our chins,
”to see if you like butter,” she said
of course the pollen clung to our skin and of course we loved butter!
such magic unquestioning then
untroubled we were by logic

we picked them for her
with clover and wild flowers: alfalfa, daisies, and snapdragons
she smiled with such deep warmth,
i felt our hearts conjoined
despite the myriad stains from the juice on our hands and clothes!

later, we learned to pull them out by the roots
a necessary concession we made to order
logic then dictated it was not worth a fight

but i never believed they were weeds and i do not now concede
it is easy to see
in the parlance in such a world as this
in which fertilizer and chemicals rule
indigenous plants and people, not so much
we get in the way, we stubborn ones
we old, we subjective ones with memory and laughter and a taste for the frivolous
who who encourage multiple translations and languages and versions
who are not troubled by chaos
we who value the underside of things and seek wisdom