Invasive Species - Kim Malinowski

poem read by Timothy Arliss OBrien

Invasive Species
Kim Malinowski

Behind the rest stop you identify fungi, flowering plants, 

dictate molds and the greenery in the meadow.

Butterfly Weed, Queen Anne’s Lace, Silky Dogwood Shrub, Brumble,

while I tromp on clusters of sod, wanting a name that captivates

your tongue like viburnum, clusters of white waterfalls,

maidenhair fern, mouth a river moving backwards.

Buttercups, so many daisies, tea berries quicken you.

I would drizzle on their colors, slide into May Pop, 

the same species known as purple Passion Flower bursting

while I collide with time and tubers, with our own aging

need to record what was once here. To add our footprints

to the mountains and behind tributaries.

The river is still corrosive from the mines, rocks scarred 

as we pass and the water low. While you love flowers, 

the folk and Latin names sliding off your tongue. 

I try each one on. Each name, each color, the ferns and the Red Mulberry.

I want to be as native to your land as Mountain Laurels.

I want your love and attention to each limb and leaf,

want to blend in with your habitat rooting myself in your dirt,

the same butterflies alighting on nose and elbow.

I want your same wild hum and awe as we wind

together into honeysuckle habitat.

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