the dandelion wars have raged for years
when i was a child
i picked a bouquet of dandelions for my mom
beauty for beauty
but she was allergic
and i learned dandelions were bad
growing greedy as vermin
multiplying in my lawn
i once saw an old woman spraying poison
her face twisted up in a strange sneer
as she squirted jet after jet of death onto those unlucky weeds
no… not poison i thought
i did weed ‘n feed that year
kids couldn’t walk in the yard for a week
DON’T TOUCH THE DANDELIONS
THEY’VE BEEN… well… poisoned
ah how we tend to revisit
the iniquities of our elders
a year passed and the dandelions were back
tenacious beasts
i uprooted each dandelion one by one
made a huge compost pile
it took me days, almost a week
and i dreamt of dandelion fractals
plunging down that yellow spinning brightly
and the next year
each site of uprooting sported
THREE MORE DANDELIONS!!!
so i planted clover
supposing if i couldn’t have perfect grass then clover might be nice
and perhaps it would compete with the dandelions
and it worked!
this year
i’m eating the dandelions