Ode to Caragana

“Intrusive transplant, invasive colonial transported here to inscribe boundaries, borders, windbreaks

But today you are brilliant with April’s newest shades— lime, mint, fern. Your tufted buds ruff out tiny fans at the tips of young twigs against the sky.

House sparrows accept your branches cheerful among their slender lace— colonists themselves, dreadfully successful around the globe.

How long does it take to belong? after you’ve muscled in, altered everything past changing back, irrevocable.

Caragana, born of the boreal rim, north’s circle of steppe and grassland continuous across continents.

The light here feels like home.”