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From: Vol.07 N.01 – Plant Poetics

Herb-Robert

by Tracy Ryan

Modesty on

the individual level

nevertheless it’s still

 

self-assertion

a choral mass

by virtue of each

 

feeble & reedy voice

joined to the next

and then it soars

 

blood-stemmed

arterial in reach

along every edge

 

you choose to travel

and some you don’t

ubiquitous at this

 

time of year but not

to be overlooked

just because slight,

 

pink & delicate,

underestimate at

your peril this tool

 

of puck or sprite

whose whole leaf

one day turns florid

 

kept out of the house

for its plain alias:

death come quickly.

Published: March 2020
Tracy Ryan

is a Western Australian poet who has also lived for long periods overseas. Her most recent book of poems is The Water Bearer (Fremantle Press, 2018).

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

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