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September: Hay Fever, Hogwash and Goldenrod

Calumny!

Goldenrod is not ragweed;

it doesn’t make you sneeze,

it doesn’t kick you in the sinuses

 

victim of vicious smear campaigns,

goldenrod is simply late summer sunshine

incarnate, innocent

splendid, green-handled torches

lighting the way for wing-weary

bees dim-eyed from long days’ work.

If you are allergic to beauty,

you have a problem

beyond the range of antihistamines.

 

So don’t project your prickly grief

over the shutting down of August

onto the burnished gold

of sunset fields aging into autumn.

Don’t blame or shame

but sit a moment in September

by  a roadside or a meadow

and get to know your dark blonde

neighbour,

so magnificent and maligned