Thank Heavens for Weeds!

 Thank Heavens for Weeds!


Thank heavens they are not always mowing the roadsides anymore

Or spraying to remove unwanted vegetation.

The earth is too manicured as it is,

Every hill and valley planted with crops.

Lawns cultivated to grow only grass 

Kept clipped so it can never mature.


When I drive down the highway and

Come across an area too steep for the big mowers,

Or too damp, or too rough,

I feel like shouting hallelujah! 

Here the rightful residents are allowed to flourish,

Shooting up tall in their natural life cycle,

Flowering, seeding, and then sending sun energy

Back to roots for another season.


Free enterprise of the plant world! 

What a smorgasbord of color, size, texture.

Here creativity can get a toehold.

A treasure chest of life and growth,

And source of food for other lives:

Seeds for birds, leaves for insects and animals, 

Wonderful and vast root networks in which

Microorganisms flourish underground.


Nature set free, if only peripherally, 

only in hard-to-manage areas.

Watching the wind blow through roadside botanical landscapes

Sets my spirit free.


I would like to pattern myself after these beautiful feral plants,

Learn from their free expression of self,

Resist clipping and trimming of my less cultivated qualities.

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