Dudley Stone
Shacking Up with a Seed Catalog
How ‘bout some Arborvitae, my love,
some of that tree of life? And look, here’s some
Hardy Magnolia, Hardy English Lavender.
Lemme prune your Butterfly Bush,
your Pink Pussy Willow. What ya got there?
Some kinda rash, some Creepin’ Red Sedum?
Dry your eyes, my Weepin’ Willow, Weepin’ Cherry.
What’s the use of a Thornless Rose,
all your sting untimely plucked?
And who’s it all for? Forsythia, of course,
har, hardy-har. Hollyhocks, I say.
Double Hollyhocks. I crack myself up.
Shake for me, my Quaking Aspen, my Flowering Cherry.
My Red Robin Hood Rose steals from the bitch
and gives to the whore. Wanna play
some strip Poker Primrose, my pitching Wu Hosta?
Oh, my Dahlia, my Dahlia,
how I missed ya. Let me trip down
your Silver Lace Vine to the Passion
Flower beneath, where the berries juice
and it’s no Wisteria I’m so damn hardy.
Here’s a Dwarf Pomegranate, a giant plum.
I’ll be your Tristan Strawberry if you’ll be my Isolde
peach. I’ll explore your Juniper, Venus, Mars.
Ah, Begonia, ya rascal. Go tell ya Papaya,
ya mamaya, go tell ya Pawpaw
I’m plucking your ripe Black Satin Blackberries,
your early Richmond, late Lancaster Cherries.
The antidote for your Jerusalem Artichoke
is my Mecca arti-Heimlich.
Can I squeeze your Josta Berry? Josta suggestion, my sweet.
Let me celebrate your lush herbiage with my interminable verbiage.
Oh, arouse my Iris, arouse my Rose,
arouse by any other name could not make my thumbs greener,
make me any more prickly. Wake up my Rose, wake up my sweet Iris.
It’s time we did some serious gardening.
Other work by Dudley Stone