‘Dandelion’

By Beverly Boyd

Damn you, dandelion,

sprung up so early in my lawn

not even mown!

But now your yellow crown

glows with daffodils,

forsythia, and such,

soon to become fluff

and in the wind

seed some protesting neighbor’s lawn.

I know our forebears

gathered you for wine

before we poisoned lawns,

but now we call you weeds

and cull you from our grass –

you, shining yellow in the early spring,

and I who cursed you

awed before your glow.

– Beverly Boyd lived in Lawrence.