The Botanist’s Unfinished Plan

The Botanist’s Unfinished Plan

In a forest away from public scrutiny,
hides the daughter of a revered Botanist
who in the later part of life created his ideal embodiment
of Mother Nature.

In her follicles
four hundred thousand seeds of ivy lie.
Her hair grows and grows, and vines
through the forest as days go by.
Summer is easy and carefree but
in the winter there needs a prompt
so every morning she calls out-
”Sunlight! Sunlight! Bow down your might!”
To which the colour of chlorophyll spreads delight.

She tried life in society,
thought of growing up against a family home wall.
Camouflaging herself with the other Hedera hibernica.
Disappearing in that sort of half-life kind of way.
But seeing the people and how they lived
the lack of stillness, the lack of beauty,
the excess of noise, the speed of cars, the pollution it all caused – 
She knew she couldn’t last.
So without delay, and to feed the Botanist’s plight
she returned to the wild, where it felt right.

[Painting:  The Woman and the Roses by Marc Chagall (1929)]