Thalictrum dioicum
Dioicum: separate houses.
Here the male
& there the female.
Clouds rise from the male plant
& dangle yellow weather.
From the female plant,
ten-fingered hands stretch
in all directions.
Without scent or nectar,
what flying thing will be
their go-between?
There’s only the wind.
But this meadow-rue
has abandoned the meadow,
so it must flower early or
the canopy will close
& the wind
will retire to the treetops.
Quicksilver-weed.
The leaves aren’t even
open all the way,
& already the male flowers
are vanishing
into the fertile household
of the earth.
OTHER POSTS IN THE SERIES
- How to Know the Wildflowers: Preface
- Spring Beauties
- Red Trillium
- Painted Trillium
- Miterwort
- Marsh Marigold
- Goldthread
- Foamflower
- False Solomon’s Seal
- Early Meadow-Rue
- Dutchman’s Breeches
- Appalachian Barren Strawberry
- Wood Anemone
- Wild Geranium
- Mayapple
- Golden Ragwort
- False Hellebore
- Fairy Bells
- Trout Lily
- Hepatica
- Yellow Violet
- Jack-in-the-Pulpit
- Starflower
- Dwarf Ginseng
- Bloodroot
- Cutleaf Toothwort
- American Golden Saxifrage
- Blue Cohosh
- Ambrosia artemisiifolia
and here’s the lady:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferschlick/4549550782/
The ones I’ve seen have been a lot more grayish. Glad I didn’t specify a color in the poem.
I am very much enjoying this series. I especially like “the fertile household of the earth.”
Thanks. No escaping an association with Gary Snyder’s Earth House Hold there, of course (not a conscious allusion, but remembered after the fact).
I don’t know that one so the allusion was lost on me, conscious or otherwise. I love when those unconscious allusions crop up in my own writing, though. Nice surprises, usually.