Weed Haiku, Copyright © 2007 by Craig Dremann
Weeds love to follow,
grow where we walk and live,
where are the natives?
Weeds came from Europe, [to California]
following all our foot steps,
invading new lands.
New world native plants,
Get chewed, cut, plowed, burned and hacked,
weeds, weeds to follow.
Solid wildflowers,
California springtime,
before all the weeds.
Where are the flowers?
Got chewed, cut, plowed, burned and hacked,
replant the natives.
Weeds make herbicides,
killing the local natives,
wildflowers need help!
Weeds make herbicides,
called allelopathy,
kills the wildflowers.
Native bunchgrasses
lupines, poppies, goldenrod,
instead of the weeds.
The pineapple weed,
tarweed and farewell to spring,
tough--to survive weeds.
Burn, mow, and spray,
pull, cut, graze, and herbicide,
native plants heal wounds.
We apologize,
when we cut the weeds,
they love this land too.
Sacred native plants
gone when we ignore them,
weeds to the horizon.
Weeds to the horizon,
foxtail, ripgut and wild oats,
need to replant natives.
Invasive trees,
acacia, eucalyptus,
chop, chop chop and chop.
Garden of Eden,
Lupines, poppies, bunchrasses,
weeds can wipe them out.
The annual weeds,
replace native ecosystems,
creating deserts.
Too many damned weeds,
interfere with life support,
killing the ecosystems.
Weeds can interfere,
with life and ecosystems,
less weeds is better.
Golden summer hills,
invasive weeds from Europe,
miss, green bunchgrasses.
Call out all their names,
wild oats, ripgut, star thistle,
Europe relatives.
Foxtails in my socks,
star thistle scratches my legs,
long for wildflowers.
USDA brings,
Harding grass, kudzu, lots of weeds,
stop spreading more weeds!
Weeds to horizon,
wildflower seed underground?
Dig and we shall see.
Former green hills,
thousand wildflower species,
possibilities.
Call out all their names,
lupines, poppies, bunchgrasses,
gone, dead under weeds.
Gentle sloping hills,
underneath lovely oak trees,
solid freeking weeds!
Bear on the Cal. flag,
frolics on bunchgrasses,
bear gone, grasses close.
Ancient oak on hill,
alone---seedlings, young trees killed,
endict weed grasses.
Brown Cal. winter hills,
should be green with bunchgrasses,
poppies, lupines, too.
Two mountain ranges,
vegetation brings the rain,
keeps desert away.
The understory, [part 1]
What percentage left in Cal.?
One percent or two?
The understory, [part 2]
What percentage in Cal., weeds?
Ninety nine or more?
The understory [part 3]
what percent native, 2? 10?
Need 90%
Eat the native plants,
"chomp" goes the horned land-ticks,
and the wooly ones.
Oak trees on the hill,
what's that brown stuff in between?
exotic weeds, weeds!
Smoke, fires in hills?
fires in desert, burning?
those damned exotics!
Our friends from Europe,
that we evolved with, follow us,
the exotic weeds.
Say a little prayer,
when you pull out a big weed,
they love this land, too.
Dry Cal. winter drought,
Exotic weeds stole the rain,
dry, dry, brown desert.
Where are the natives?
Lupine, poppies, bunchgrasses?
ask the invasives.
Cal. fires burn bright,
what's all that brown stuff in hills?
weeds, weeds from Europe.
Cal. like Salalah [Oman]
thin line of native shrubs, trees,
keeps desert away.
Weeds love road edges,
natives gone, helps star thistle,
fountaingrass to thrive.
Talk, talk about weeds,
One third of Cal.is thick weeds,
promise of action?
Watch ornamentals,
fountaingrass and pampas grass,
cover hills and dales.
Weeds like to play chess,
twelve species work as a team,
checkmate with natives.
Harding grass is queen,
the pawns include star thistle
play game of weed chess.
Bunchgrasses are rooks,
the wildflower are the pawns,
checkmaking the weeds.
Rock, scissors, paper,
plants play games with each other,
trees, shrubs and grasses.
Bunchgrasses are rooks,
the wildflowers are the pawns,
checkmating the weeds.
Choose sides in weed-chess.
will the weeds win by default?
or we help checkmate?
Whole ecosystems,
species work in harmony,
until weeds invade.
Weak ecosystem,
key species gone or grazed out,
weed-cancer can start.
Weed-cancers invade,
unhealthy ecosystems?
land-doctors must help!
First plant is a ten,
like poker, next plant a two,
must find who beats who.
Starthistle evil?
No, a lonely default weed,
lives where natives gone.
Saharan mustard,
taking over the desert,
lives where natives gone.
Foxtails love our homes,
loves to follow our footsteps,
mow and they still grow.
Starthistle and cows,
cow antibodies, for soil,
keeps bare soil covered.
The native tarweeds,
slow down fires with green stems,
protects the grasslands.
Wild oats, ripgut grass,
are five times the biomass
of the bunchgrasses.
Saharan mustard,
and Harding grass, spread five fold,
when there's no natives.
Pull, spray, cut, burn, mow,
keep doing it forever,
need to plant natives.
Pull, spray, cut, burn, mow,
keep doing it forever,
plant natives, instead.
Miles of air above,
oceans deep--but only few feet,
weed-free soil, our life.
Don't burn Cal. grasses,
weeds that burn five times hotter,
kills natives to roots.
Mow, burn, pull, cut, graze,
star thistle loves attention,
helps it grow better.
Ecosystem-math,
all native plants in balance,
weeds break all the rules.
Local native plants,
are the antibiotics,
you use against weeds.
Weeds are "land cancer",
the land-doctors need to plant,
back the natives.
Public agencies,
try to fight weeds cheap, but need,
thousandfold increase.
Public agencies,
control 10% a year,
or weeds take over.
Public agencies,
lack of weed money, can cause
ecosystem death.
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Weed Haiku Copyright © 2007 by Sue Dremann
Escaped exotics
on the run from Alcatraz
death sentence for earth.
The land as bullseye,
for cow flop laden with weeds,
smothering earth's life.
Unpalatable,
neither fit for man nor beast,
cuisine of weeds.
In bare feet I dance,
on the weedy windblown grave,
of alien plants.
Allelopathy,
from weeds, sweeps like Mongol warriors,
across native steppes.
Weeds crunch under foot,
unhappy conflagration,
a funeral pyre.
Ode to Phalaris [Ode to Harding grass]
makes Hippies and sheep stagger,
from maddening drugs.
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