“Invasive” Species Unknowingly Enjoyed

POETRY

By Rebecca Findlay

Queen Anne’s Lace, bitten through to make bouquets Kudzu when it makes ruined farms look like turf houses Japanese water beetles rutting and roiling in a peony Lanternflies with red petticoats and grey crepe overlay (spotted) Wineberries for their sticky sweetness under spikes Emerald Ash Borer pinned in a case, its wings lit leathery green Rhododendrons large enough to cut tunnels through Armadillos moving north to escape the creep of heat Gingko biloba leaves gold yellow in fall, not seeds that stink Cats that slink, licking their paws clean after killing robins or Murmurations of starlings stealing from feedlots of Homo sapiens sapiens, myself included, spreading like Broadleaf plantain, known as waybread or white man’s footprint, the leaf a balm against bee stings or strikes from European wasps, here called yellowjackets, whose paper nests are a marvel