This is the year I learned to hate the moles,
the whole blind-tunneling, garden-raiding,
carrot-devouring, pea-sprout-munching,
rapidly reproducing, miserable movement of moles.
Not for a lifetime, but for an hour or two,
I would like to be an owl so I might
swoop down on their company in the dark
with my enormous silent wings and my sharp
and merciless beak. I would pluck their bodies
from the rows of beans with relentless precision
and I’d pull them apart, the young ones, too,
no, not for the joy of the massacre,
but because that is what I am born to do.
How free it must be to kill with no conscience,
to take their furry, soft-skinned lives
without tripping on compassion.
How much easier not to muse
about how a rodent’s got to eat something, too,
and why wouldn’t she want an organic carrot,
all crunchy and sweet, or a pea sprout or one hundred,
so tender, so green.
Moles doing what moles do. But, c’mon moles, all we are saying, is, “Give peas a chance!”
“This is the year I learned to hate the moles,…for an hour or two.” Also like, “a pea sprout or one hundred,” for it’s unexpected turn (not, a pea sprout or two) and also for its specificity (not _a_ hundred but _one_ hundred). I also like the your mole is a she.
And what about your owl—doing what owls do? Is it their (seeming) lack of conscience that you wish for, or is it specific revenge on the moles?
Give peas a chance indeed!
Oh Eduardo, all I really want is for those moles to go make themselves a happy home OUTSIDE of my garden!
Whoo whooo Xo r
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Monday, October 19, 2015 at 9:40 AM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “Why I Didn¹t Grow a Single Pea this Year”
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Fascinating poem and fascinating reaction I’m having … wanting to cheer your owl and defend your mole all in the same breath. You’ve certainly captured the dismay and disappointment of having your garden raided … and you’ve passed the rage like a bowl of peas so we can all sample it. Good poems arouse; this one surely does.
Yes, thank you Jazz, that was exactly my dilemma, wanting to root for the (imaginary) owl and justify the moles at the same time. It¹s never simple, is it oh this miraculous web, this frustrating, fabulous life.
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Monday, October 19, 2015 at 2:30 PM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “Why I Didn¹t Grow a Single Pea this Year”
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i have the same kind of inner turmoil with deer killing my shrubs and trees, but i need something bigger than an owl to examine how to deal with it. WCW echoes in that closing line, and he was dealing with wives and plums.
Yes! There it is, that so so WCW close, I didn¹t even think of it, but it seems clear now. And there it is, the almost apology. I think I am more sincere than WCW was, though 🙂
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Monday, October 19, 2015 at 8:32 PM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “Why I Didn¹t Grow a Single Pea this Year”
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