kaberett | [poem] Directions for care

Entry tags:

[poem] Directions for care

It's all too easy to dismiss, diminish
your sharp-edged individual brilliance
as untidiness, as more work than
you're worth. Try this:

Needs direct sun with good support,
for preference, south-facing walls;
and well-drained soil and fleece in frosts
and water when the weather's hot.
Slow to flower, rarely fruits;
give the thing at least five years.
Mind the thorns, the strangling vines;
mind the poison the sap bears.

Grant me leave instead to make this promise:
yes, you're brash and loud and take up space;
perhaps you're snide, opinionated, lacking grace;
but darling, what you don't quite seem to grasp
is that your weaponry can be defence
and ornament at once; can, in point of fact,
be precisely why it is that you're beloved.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I like lots.

Oh.

As muttered below: this one is born in part of having spent a fair bit of time in winter gardens over the last little bit, where there are lots of deliberately decorative thorny-things where the entire point is the thorns, because last week I went to facesfriend "but why the fuck would you even want me I'm just loud and opinionated and full of feelings and..." and he kind of looked at me and went "yes. exactly."

Oh, I love the conceit here.

And I find personal resonance in 'Needs direct sun with good support,' ;) (In fact I'd only just mentioned falling asleep in the sun in a totally unconnected reply)

Heh, yeah, it is quite deliberately describing-myself-as-a-plant :-) And is born in part of having spent a fair bit of time in winter gardens over the last little bit, where there are lots of deliberately decorative thorny-things where the entire point is the thorns, because last week I went to facesfriend "but why the fuck would you even want me I'm just loud and opinionated and full of feelings and..." and he kind of looked at me and went "yes. exactly."