Weeds

The usual definition of a weed as a “plant out of place" reflects human bias. - Alexander C. Martin, Weeds WEEDS I David Wagoner Crabgrass, ragweed, sandbur, plantain—I knew them Better than lawnkeepers knew their favorite Square green grassbeds, better than gentlemen Of the turf knew edgers or rollers, clippers or sprinklers Whose neat bushes of water played More usefully than we did. In vacant lots and the cracks of concrete, we flourished As unobtrusively as we could, and as fast, In holes no one remembered digging, from decaying Compost heaps nobody ever used To feed the gardens weeds had been bom in, From which they were exiled. We never seemed out of place to me. I grew Invisibly like them by alleys, in gutters, At the ends of streets that no one superintended, By railroad beds—a tumbleweed ready to break Away forever between dry roots And stem-base, joining the wind. 10 ■ T h e M i s s o u r i R e v ie w ...