It is Not Indigenous

My friend Ace told me he was afraid
for the first time in his life.

I said, “Welcome to the world.”

There we were, me with my heart
(every day severed) with the fear
of losing wild, overgrown beauty.

And him, wanting to tame the bamboo,
thinking it would make him brave…
“Cut it out!” (but it keeps growing)

Bamboo grows everywhere, especially in areas
its not supposed to grow.
It is not indigenous around here.

However, it is still quite lovely.
And I told him that maybe being afraid

is okay.

But he said he wanted to burn down the bamboo
forest.

BIO
Holly Dunlap has a M.A. in CW from CU, and is going to be teaching a class in the fall called “Writing Children’s Literature” for UGA Continuing Ed. She’s excited to no end about it…oh, and scared:) Holly can be found blogging here.