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| Leiliane Dutra |
Tall Grass
I love
how the tall grasses
Panicum virgatum and
Chasmantium latifolium
— perched at the corner
where my driveway
meets the runoff ditch,
next to where the refuse bins
await collection on Tuesdays,
their brittle plastic markers with
Latin names
long since obscured
by the expanding forest
of their grassy stems—
never stay bent and bowed for long
after a battering rain
pummels their regal foliage,
to be released graciously
from tips to ground;
or early snows
all but flatten
their former bearing
threatening a reluctant hibernation.
No, they shed the unnecessary
weight,
channel it to their roots
where it will serve them well
in time
and stand nobly together
waving in the more forgiving winds
deflecting potential criticisms
of the imperfect lawn behind them
with sheer and outrageous confidence
proclaimed by reds and blues and greens
in plumage and dancing seeds.
They declare to passersby,
“Isn’t it marvelous
to be right here?”
(From Diane Engelstad's book In the Presence of Trees, All the Space Publishing, 2026)
© Diane Engelstad
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| Diane Engelstad |
