Marge Piercy

All we don’t cherish

Honeysuckle has twined
around the Persian lilac.
Sweetness flows through
a window into my office.

People call it invasive,
a weed to be yanked.  But
weeds are just plants
we don’t want someplace.

I spare it for the flowers
that really do smell of honey
unprocessed, fresh from
cubbyholes of comb.

The stray cat sniffing
for supper that could love
you for years, the memoir
nobody bothered to read—

a life forgotten.   How
many unhonored, often
unnoticed are offering
themselves to us daily?

Marge Piercy has published 20 poetry collections, most recently, ON THE WAY OUT, TURN OFF THE LIGHT [Knopf]; 17 novels including SEX WARS.  PM Press reissued VIDA, DANCE THE EAGLE TO SLEEP; they brought out short stories THE COST OF LUNCH, ETC and MY BODY, MY LIFE [essays, poems]. She has read at over 575 venues here and abroad.