Abstract
Weeding:a love poem Brendan Ryan (bio) Couch grass, bindweed, dock and dandelion.Each weed takes me back to earthto the bending, the pulling, the constant work. To weed is to love drifting offto the smell of capeweedin a winter paddock long wavering heads of spear grasson the river flats in summer,tussocks that cut our fingers Scotch thistles I hacked from the dirtscrubby ferns I couldn't get enough ofstretches of blackberry where we hid dead calves. Pigweed, fat hen, oxalis and nettle.Kneeling before buttercups I think aboutthings I shouldn't think about. The very plants I want to yank outI'm finding ways back to lovesour sob, lantana, nut grass. I pull out weeds to see where the dayhas gone, a type of reverie like listeningto the radio outdoors, of doing one job while attending to another, of returningto milk thistle where the thinking gets done,to weed is to love the plants nobody wants. [End Page 147] Brendan Ryan Brendan Ryan grew up on a dairy farm at Panmure in Western Victoria. His poetry, reviews, and essays have been published in literary journals and newspapers, including Island, Westerly, Antipodes, the Age, the Weekend Australian, The Best Australian Poems series (Black Inc), and Contemporary Australian Poetry (Puncher and Wattman). He is the author of six collections of poetry, and Travelling through the Family (Hunter Publishers) was short-listed for the 2014 Victorian Premier's Awards. His latest collection of poetry, The Lowlands of Moyne, was published by Walleah Press in 2019. Copyright © 2020 Wayne State University Press
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