Courage

It takes some courage to eat a legume's fruit

knowing what is known of each poisonous part

of the locust (although the flowers may be frittered).

What's pushing up through the leaf litter

before the canopy is out, past the stone fence?

Wild lily-of-the-valley is my guess.

Of 140,000 soldiers, less than 1% have considered

the fruit of the desert surprisingly good and varied.

They have stayed and married women who are crows.

My own land is a land of wetlands but we too

have crows. We have waited and waited for this election

and now we're divided into just two factions.

If everyone votes and every vote's counted there will be

nothing for either faction to crow about. All will be

well with the republic and in the world what will be will be.

What responsibility does a citizen bear

for participating in a war, blowing the roofs

off houses, exposing the beds and clean-swept floors?

Warriors at the gate, you will not run,

you will not bargain. Dig in deep, feet

overhanging the abyss, protect your children.

I poured water into the dry vase of garden cultivars"

snapdragon, phlox, begonia, bluebell, mint" --

and have they not rewarded me with their collective scent?