At the garden club talk

The lupine, the blazing star
the cone flowers
and all the grasses taller
than I am
(the man told us)
had to go. City orders.
Either I dig it up, or they’d
mow it down. Corner lot.
Boulevard garden.
Obstructs the view.
Never heard of it. I didn’t know—
(voice breaking)
I dug it up.
Every plant, even the short ones.
And the bees had nowhere to go.
Hundreds of them.
A few dozen hung around for
days. In a daze.
They-had-nowhere-to-go.

Judge’s Comments:
Humans have chosen to be in conflict with nature, over and over again, and in “Collateral Damage,” we see one example of our devastating impact, from the uprooted plants to the displaced bees. Here, a gardener recounts the destruction, his voice breaking as he describes the consequences of a seemingly ordinary city ordinance. The repetition of “nowhere to go” captures not only the displacement of the bees but also the gardener’s own helplessness and grief, forced to participate in the destruction of the very nature he seeks to protect. It is a heartbreaking reminder of our attempts to restore a natural balance while rubbing up against the human impulse to develop, regulate, and, ultimately, dominate.

Poet Statement:
My husband and I attended a talk of our local garden club one January evening. The third speaker gave a talk about his garden and the challenges he had had the previous summer. I'll say more at the Zoom reading.