It wasn’t there yesterday. Feverfew,
feverfew poking up between lilacs
past blooming, next to rhododendron,
under kousa dogwood, bowing
over hostas. Like fairy lights,
baby daisies, constellations, weeds.
I leave my house & they are all around me.
They do not take my breath away.
They are kitchen-garden pretty.
But oh their secrets! – Under gingham dresses
pungent leaves cure fever, anxiety,
depression. Like the note your grandmother
left in a greasy margin that changes your life.
Names: Feverfew, featherfew, federfoy,
featherfoil, febrifuge, flirtwort, bachelor's button.
Vetter-voo, feather-fully, feddygen fenyw, flirtroot,
Mother herb, mutterkraut, Tanacetum parthenium.
Tanacetum, from botanical latin: immortality.
Tanaceta, or tansy, tucked into death shrouds
to keep rats from our corpses. Parthenium,
from the Greek παρθένος (parthenos), virgin.
Immortal virgin, Diana of my kitchen garden,
empowered, fecund – this tiny flower
next to blousier Aphrodites, loving
our papercut, our nosebleed,
our dirt-path commonplace death.
Sara Eddy’s second full-length poetry collection, How to Wash a Rabbit, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press. Read more.