Rus Stanton's aunt-in-law (is that a designation?) is a poet. Rus wanted to share this wonderful poem written by his wife's aunt, poet Alexandria Sergio. Enjoy this playful musing about a serious topic.
In The Event Of
My Being Consigned To The Plant Kingdom
Prologue:
The artichoke
is class as
hell,
baffling,
harbors a
delicious secret
defended by
spiked guardians,
rewards effort.
You can't go
wrong
with artichokes.
It
was broadcast that
the
dying man was
"in
a vegetative state"
like
fulvous broccoli,
a
pitted bean
spotted
parsnip,
a
life reduced
to
sliming greens.
Clutching
for some scrim of dignity
to
make safe my naked soul,
I've
left instructions that should my mind discard itself
while
the heart yet whispers,
the
announcement,
if
it must indicate a change in my taxonomy,
is
to say
"she maintains an artichokian essence."
Do
not report
that
she was last seen resembling a flaccid carrot,
sour
with the taint of last week's spinach,
but
rather say there prevailed an aura of globed amusement
suggesting
that,
tantalizing
as the cardoon,
she
had a secret
and
now you will never know it.
Alexandria
Sergio
(C)