Spiderwort

Science Sonnets

A bomb exploded in my yard today,
A pyrotechnic boom. The spiderwort,
Despite that ugly name, puts on a show
Of gorgeous fireworks, shooting blade-shaped leaves
In all directions out like flame-green rays,
While in a smaller secondary blast,
Embedded and delayed, are all these bold
Eye-popping little blue-blue-purple blooms.
If plants were audible, the spiderwort
Would be head-banging. You would want to grab
The nearest earplugs, beg it please to stop—
And even now, with that thing in my garden,
It’s getting hard to write above the hue
Of lightning-green brightness purple-shot-through.

—Henry Rathvon

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