Horticulture?

MORTICULTURE

Gourd vines unfurl on the trellis
so fast now that a pulse is nearly felt
at the growth tips

Little buds that will be flowers
emerge from nothing
Up the wire mesh go the vines
a rung or two at a time

and the tendrils wave
and writhe in air
seeking purchase
- Wire to bend -

Finding something to grab onto
they kink up
in tight spirals
like octopus tentacles

Twelve plants started from seed
in my south window sill indoors
fragile they were and now

They have enough
collective force to produce
a bin of future horns, rattles
bowls and dippers

or to make good on a sci-fi
nightmare
and do me in
I will not turn my back on them

At night through the open
bedroom window I hear them
growing
muscling their way toward me

I could have stopped them once
but now they have
harnessed the sun
and they want to grow
all over me

I have to make a run past
this trellis in the morning
when I go to work
They might snatch an arm or pantleg

but I close the door on
the offending tentacles
and back down the drive
a struggle between an auto
engine and photosynthesis

So far the car always wins
and the tendril ends whimper
when their connexions to the mother vine
break
and come bungeeing back
at the windshield

Neighbor's pets
have begun to disappear
The vines have a way
of beckoning innocently
like a benign cobra

You have to stare at them
and you want
to move in for a closer look
because you are curious
aren't you?

Don't


[ 2001]

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