91 of 100
Speculation
A bulb, kept cool and perfectly dry,
can last for years, the suspended animation
of spring and color and growth.
A bulb, planted, watered,
nestled in earth and sun, will grow,
unwary of the depth of soil.
A bulb, excavated with care,
can feed a squirrel for
a winter's week.
We laugh, in retrospect,
at our imagined Dutch speculators,
in wooden shoes, swapping guilders
for tulip bulbs, infected bulbs.
But this madness, this disease
of the crowd and of the bulb itself,
this spangled, striped, and dangerous variegation,
is sufficient proof
of the mania to live in beauty,
in a richness of color,
to be buried in drifts of golden pollen.
A bulb, kept cool and perfectly dry,
can last for years, the suspended animation
of spring and color and growth.
A bulb, planted, watered,
nestled in earth and sun, will grow,
unwary of the depth of soil.
A bulb, excavated with care,
can feed a squirrel for
a winter's week.
We laugh, in retrospect,
at our imagined Dutch speculators,
in wooden shoes, swapping guilders
for tulip bulbs, infected bulbs.
But this madness, this disease
of the crowd and of the bulb itself,
this spangled, striped, and dangerous variegation,
is sufficient proof
of the mania to live in beauty,
in a richness of color,
to be buried in drifts of golden pollen.