White abelia grandiflora,
abies alba,
or bloody sparaxis tricolor,
having escaped cultivation,
lie under and next to
grand houses
while
there,
where
the weeds
seed among
neglected apartments,
I find
erodium moschatum
called musk stork's bill,
or whitestem filaree,
a flower colored stickly purple.
Higher,
growing through rock, walled and chinked,
trails plectanthus verticullatus,
a lamium, an ivy,
rarely listened to.
It's easier for me,
for the trees and bushes,
to see
exotic datura,
the pendulant nightshade,
dragging down the moon,
driving men and horses mad.
Glad that I prefer the ficus,
who like us sane,
and the plain stenotaphrum,
an ordinary grass
now valued for beauty and tolerance.
