Portrait of a Shipwrecked Invader
Shades of green with pops of white
A tightly wrapped bud with a blush of pink
A pure white whorl of petals glows in the morning light
A star of sepals surrounds a wiry ring of spent stamen around the ovary incubating seeds.
Survivor of salt spray and freezing winters
Impassable thickets of rugosa spread from underground runners
- Armoring spikes protect tender shoots and a stockade of stalks
Hips dense with seeds nourish animals who further spread the robustly prolific plant.
A schooner filled with horticultural oddities floundered and its cargo fell into the ocean
Scrawny and scraggly, the specimens broke free of their crates and settled in the sand, sent out scouts, secured a beachhead, largely unnoticed
Rooted deeply in the land, gone native, crossbreed, flourished
A new participant shifted the ecology.
-- Larry Wolf, 26 June/7 July 2025
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| Larry Wolf, Thorny Beauty (2025) |
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