Flower for the Day Mayapple 5-5-2020

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum)is an easily recognizable woodland shade plant. It is also called ducks foot

and American mandrake. It is commonly seen in large cluster.

 

The mayapple flower occurs near the fork of two stems.

 

      Mayapple

I'm trying to get lost
somewhere south along the mountain
when I break through a tangle
of fox grapes and stop short:

an insurgent sea of mayapples
bobs in the breeze, a minature forest.
I remember the stories I've heard
about human-shaped roots

& how they've yielded a new
weapon against cancer.
I think of them crowded together
in the stoney dark. 

We who eulogize private virtue
& small acts of kindness,
have we forgotten the glory
of the grand gesture? I stand 

as immobile as that line of tanks
at the Gate of Heavenly Peace,
unable to go farther without
crushing one or two. 

Their parasols make a brave show,
but they keep their faces down
& their yellow focus on the fruit
they know will come, if only for a few—

fruit that may or may not be digestible,
flowers that may or may not self-pollinate,
depending on the encampment,
& insects that may or may not visit, 

since the mayapples offer

neither nectar nor desirable pollen,

& seem to persist because a few bees bumble
& forget where they are. 

Posted February 8, 2011 by Dave Bonta