
Mitella diphylla
After pollination, the flower cup
turns into a blunderbuss,
expelling its tiny seeds
when a raindrop strikes.
Was it this, or the flower’s
fringe of white feathers,
that made the Iroquois think
they could drink a decoction
& rid the body of bad luck,
expel it in their vomit?
Sometimes, too, they’d use it
to bathe a gun that didn’t
bring down game
or ease one drop
into a sore eye,
surgical as the tongue
of a halictid bee reaching
between the lashes.
Love “blunderbuss” and the bee’s surgical tongue!
Thanks. “Blunderbuss” is one of those words I’ve been looking for an excuse to deploy forever!
Yes, methinks it belongs in the same category as words like “kerfuffle” :)
Wonderful.
Thanks.