Poem 496

It’s not always big things that give you a reminder of your own insignificance … here I find nature in my own kitchen completely indifferent to my attempt to be a progenitor …

Root Ginger

This brown hard
monkey-like
clump of ginger
grew
where I left it
in the rimu bowl
a hard green
node
like a chrysalis
and I wondered
how that tight
shiny
lump was able
to swell
on only air
and scrubbed
wood
            wanting
to see growth
like the obliging
onion
that throws
bright plastic arms
out of a cup
I packed it
in cotton wool
damped down
in a glass
and since then
                               nothing

still the green
boil
is there
between lids
of brittle
brown paper
its stare
as glaucous
as a snail
the cat's eye
that shuts
the shellfish
inside
             waiting
for me to
go