Root Bound Desire

a poem on softening roots

Thank you to Kith & Kin Poetry for sharing a line from Sarah Thompson’s poem: “Church: (the body as nature)” and providing “softening roots” as this week’s poetry prompt.

Photo by Suri Huang on Unsplash

she came to diagnose
my stunted growth
and lack of bloom

ah! she exclaimed, 
root-bound
a bigger pot is what you need 

she carefully extracts me
roots tightly wound
still growing, but

	nowhere
			to
	go

she gently caresses my harder parts
softening them for transplant 

She is so kind.

I don’t know how to tell her I would
		
much
		prefer
		the
		earth.