..just then
It was just there, a few weeks ago,
When the Sun was high;
Nestled with Fleabane;
Pillowed in Stitchwort.
Barely fern-like and feathery, just new,
A small Astilbe, from somewhere.
Growing was newer, just then,
Hinting boundlessness, endlessness;
Stirring in Bindweed;
Rising in Buttercups.
This slanting-orange morning, just now,
Spade in hand to save the Astilbe, I find it gone;
Taken by Redroot,
Fallowed by Sorrel.
Barely reddish, silent, nubile green, just new,
The small Astilbe from somewhere, now gone!
I guess it was a moment’s treasure, just then.
Like oblique light upon the wood, just now.
Or parched Cocklebur,
Or withered Hop.
black snakeroot, yew, cocklebur, poison (ivy, oak, parsnip, sumac, ryegrass, hemlock), blister bushes, daffodil, mayapple, lilium, jerusalem cherry, indian licorice, deadly nightshade, christmas rose, bleeding heart, asparagus berries, wolfsbane, tomato leaves, doll’s eyes, the suicide tree, young larkspur, blue-green algae, stinkweed, dumbcane, european spindle, blind-your-eye mangrove, manchineel, laburnum, mother of millions, elderberry root, bacterial pathogens, exotoxins, mycotoxins, grayanotoxins, rhinovirus, chicken pox, sleeping sickness, cholera, yellow fever, typhoid, rotavirus, river blindness, measles, japanese encephalitis, hepatitis (a,b & c), cryptosporidiosis, shigella infection, pneumonia, meningitis, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, malaria, influenza, herpes (1 & 2), crab louse, scabies, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, chancroid, trichomoniasis, hpv, hiv/aids, ebola virus, marburg virus, mad cow disease, mudslides, avalanches, blizzards, storms, cyclones, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, fires, supervolcanic eruptions: evidence of absence.