Doug Roy, Turtle, Cut Paper
Dandelion Patrol *
New house, new dandelions. Hairy, savage dandelions,
ancient and venerable, like a Galapagos tortoise
or one of Tolkien’s Dwarvish kings.
New to this suburban purgatory, I succumb
immediately to peer pressure, and resentfully.
If dandelions were delicate and rare, we would treasure
them and coddle them and gnash our teeth when they slipped
through our fingers.
Dandelions laugh when they see me coming.
Their taproots take evasive action; they grow new crowns
like the Hydra.
If rare orchids kept springing up
in our lawns, we would poison them and pull them up and hate them.
I keep uprooting dandelions through back pain
for the satisfaction of killing.
*Previously published in Brian Jerrold Koester’s new collection, Why the Trumpet Is Blue (Silver Bow Publishing, 2026)
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Brian Jerrold Koester