A Pacific Northwest native, I have been writing poetry over 40 years. My poems reflect a woman’s journey through the later years, with recurring themes of loss and renewal.
If dandelions
were hard to grow,
we would delight
In their golden faces,
artists would paint them,
botanists would hybridize them,
and lucky folks would find them
growing in their lawns.
But you say, it’s just a weed.
Weed is what we call a thing
we do not like. It has doomed
Taraxacum officinale
to a life of herbicide and early death.
Why, you ask?
Being too easy, that’s why,
being too plentiful, too abundant.
We prize the exotic,
the hard to find,
and disdain what blooms
unbidden in our own backyards.
But perhaps the time has come
to change all this,
to stop worshiping orchids
and settle down with dandelions,
to rediscover the joy
of being ordinary,
and blow white puffballs
of simplicity
out into the world.
To view previous C Ross poem – click here
Cathy, I adore your poetic “explanation” of why sassy dandelions get such a bum rap. Whoever determined, anyway, that daffodils are prettier/more worthy than dandelions?
I agree 😊