We continue with Songs of a Lupine series from the lovely Neema Komba:

The Lupine is considered an invasive flower that doesn’t belong to Finnish nature. In this mini-series of poems, I use the lupine as a lens to think about immigration, migration, and invasion. 

 

Delinquent Flower: 

Sometime ago,

Someone somewhere saw you

Soar above the grass

Sway in a light breeze 

Graceful and elegant

Like a giraffe. 

 

Sometime ago, 

Someone somewhere wanted you tame 

They plucked your stem

And put you in a delicate vase

Picked your seed

Planted you in a garden

 

And now, you are everywhere.

Stomping boots into riverbeds,

Vandalizing fields,

The graffiti of flowers.

A wild thing,

Delinquent.

 

How can something so beautiful be harmful?

 Tell me, 

 

Have you always been this way? 

Do you really hurt butterflies? 

Arm-wrestle delicate plants,

Steal their spotlight? 

 

Or do we misunderstand you,

Plant you in the wrong place

then blame you for, being you?