Ode: To Power

A Work in Progress 
59

                      strophe

Such power in last year’s deer tongue lettuce

once tender leaves nut sweet in salad

now three feet tall 

small bushes with large spreading canopies

yellow flowers on green pipe-cleaner stems 

straining upward for much hoped for warmth 

survivors of winter’s winds snows and frosts 

thin buds tightly wrapped waiting to unfurl 

then refurl once they’ve felt the sun’s full warmth

going to seed adorned with dandelion fluff

for goldfinches to find now their time has come.

                    antistrophe

Such power in those that over winter

perennials with lives not truncated

lived long lived well 

alive unique not John Doe replicants

not needy supplicants but strong stalwarts

tribal elders awake aware

their memories archive observation

what went past predicts what will come

nothing surprises those that have been before

knowing what they know they’ll over winter

encrust another year refine their judgement.

                         epode

Time proven perennials will cast votes next year

use power to give power 

or justly take power away.

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2025