Urban Ecology

Urban Ecology

On the way to buy burritos
I made everyone stop
so I could pick some
bladder campions
and put them in my hair.

There were masses of them,
purple-green-veined white
balloon shaped flowers
with five tiny petals
at the end of each one.
They were little fairy dirigibles,
propellered and all.

They grew from cracks
in the concrete along a fence
next to a vacant building
across from a construction site
on a bleak little street
without even a tree.

All afternoon at work
I was Titania,
with a garland in my hair.

It was raining on some
weeds near an office building,
but in my midsummer’s dream,
I walked in a woodland
glittering with dew.

-- Amy Isikoff Newell, 2012