Taking Root
Wednesday is watering morning.
I’m shadowing my grandmother,
soaking up her stories
while totting up the spots
on the leaves of her polka dot begonia
and poking my fingers through the perforations
of her Swiss cheese plant.
Each time we go back to the kitchen,
she lifts me onto the formica counter
so I can reach the sink and refill
the little watering can. Just a dribble
for the silver squill that’s spilling over
the rim of its planter,
her floral former chamber pot.
Others are much more thirsty,
like my favourite oxalis,
its leaves the shade of the hot ribena
I’ll have as a treat later.
From my grandmother, I learn
how to soothe burns with the sap of aloe vera,
how to propagate Christmas cacti,
how the rubber plant got its name.
I cling to the care tips she shares
like a pothos to a moss pole.
And, from her tale of being orphaned at eight
and made to slave in the pub
of her adoptive father,
I learn how plants can soothe
the wounds we keep indoors too.
Susan Richardson is a writer, performer and educator from Wales. Her fourth poetry collection, Words the Turtle Taught Me, emerged from her residency with the Marine Conservation Society and was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. Read more.