Manuela Cardiga - Guilty Pleasures and Culinary Treasures

HORTICULTURE 101

Gypsy roses
Don't grow on land.
They dig their roots
Through aortas
And ventricles
And into arteries,
And cling sharp thorns
To the bare hand
Of whoever
Becomes enamoured
Of their tremulous
beauty, glamoured
And enchanted
By the velvet
Secret scent
Of the unfolding petals.

Gypsy roses
Grow anywhere,

At any time 

And in any clime.
Needing no ground,
They seed on flesh;
Willing or unwilling,
And they do not need
Rainfall or sunlight
For seedlings to sprout,
For they drink their sustenance
Straight from the heart.


Manuela Cardiga