July 14

Dipsacus fullonum

_______________________________________

With a purple tutu

Covering those sharp spines

Simultaneously

Attracting, repelling

Roadside weed, food for bees

*

Glistens with summer dew

Used to comb wool so fine

Grows spontaneously

Endlessly compelling

Now here from overseas

*

Armored dangerously

Growing and excelling

_______________________________________

(A Rimas Dissolutas Poem)

June 6

Spotted Lanternfly

_____________________________________

They creep and crawl

Curious and confused

In a foreign land

Exploring new plants

Suitable for food

Seemingly adapted to find all leaves

Sufficient as meals and for young to roam

*

They creep and crawl

Roots pushing through hardened soils

This plant these bugs know

It’s familiar scent

Repels us humans

But this new insect to the US finds

This foreign tree a postcard from home.

_____________________________________

(A Duodora Poem)