Tuberous, climbing, leaflets multiplying, 3 - 5 - 7 - 9
Unmistakably a bean climbs
Pink dusk flowers, whorled on a squat raceme

By the pond, river, creek, and high on a hillside
seeking vine tips sought my heart and curled around it.
Wild thing, weedy bean, you are
rended from your human beings

Tubers excite my stomach,
dehiscent pods, like wings, take flight in my mind,
Planting your beans, a promise to the future.,

The grip you have on my heart does not strangle.
It gives me solace, a tight hug soothing my distress
Like community, like family, like land,
I need you in order to live as a human.

My jealous ancestors couldn’t own or destroy you and your people
The inevitable realization of our need was a distant whisper
But the inevitable is marked on the body, like the cycle of the seasons.

In your green body you contain the truth.
The perfect food you make, the march of years growing
ever onward, deeper, richer,
promising we will each be soil for the other in time.

I can release my grip on you and the land. Death is not to be feared.

You have already fertilized my soil, so I sprout into this real world
The world of interdependence, care, and compassion.
Reconciliation and courage requires that I plant you
For the rest of my life, and for many lives to come.