Where white houses used to be

There are still Tiger Lilies in clumps

Where the path to the front door was.

 

There are four tires per car speeding by

Thirty-four cars per hour, in a century

That’s one hundred seventeen thousand tires

Their diameters grow smaller over time.

 

Rusty Armco barriers line the old ditches

They are broken from many near misses

Of drivers distracted by flowers or something

But let’s assume it was the flowers

 

Tiger Lilies can live to be hundreds of years old

The round bulbs just centimeters under the ground

And tolerant of volatile chemicals and rust

And the black rubber common near roads.

 

They are poisonous to cats

Their nodding tepals feed bulbils

That spread aggressively

and grow larger over time.