Tufts, follicles, grubstake

biennial rosettes, a low-

life beach-blond scruff of

couch grass: notwithstanding

the interglinting dregs



of wholesale upheaval and

dismemberment, weeds do not

hesitate, the wheeling

rise of the ailanthus halts

at nothing--and look! here's



a pokeweed, sprung up from seed

dropped by some vagrant, that's

seized a foothold: a magenta-

girdered bower, gazebo twirls

of blossom rounding into



raw-buttoned, garnet-rodded

fruit one more wayfarer

perhaps may salvage from

the season's frittering,

the annual wreckage.