Root Ghazal

I filch a sprig of jasmine from a public bush
to set in water, hoping to sprout new roots.

You have to admire the way some plants grow
new parts after division— even sturdier roots.

The garden guides say: sanitize your blades 
before you cut, to encourage clean roots.

If we cut off our limbs we would merely be armless or
legless. To lop off a tail would not grow new roots—

but that's how a lizard escapes. I've changed the soil,
thinned the overgrowth, and aerated the roots. 

Decades now since I decided to make a life here.
Does your heart, too, swing from its nest to its roots?

The tree bears fruit that ripens and swells. What's unpicked
sugars the air, loosens, then plummets back to the roots.