Snaggled between pavement cracks, you’re dentes de leon,
toothed lion, tarakhshaqūn, bitter-leaf herb, until the ragged
petals shake loose, become the dazzling yellow of a sun, if
the sun was a flower. Each flower of yours is one hundred
flowers, strung on fields of green like golden lamps. No one
sees you in between, but suddenly you’re a tufted cloud, a
puffball of silk-furred aeronauts, ready for launch on my
blown-out breath. And after all these feats of gold, green
and silver seed? I’m surprised they dare to call you a weed!
dentes de leon – the French word for dandelion, meaning ‘teeth of the lion’
tarakhshaqūn – an Arabic word meaning ‘bitter herb’, origin of the word ‘Taraxacum’, which is the botanical name of the dandelion family
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Gita Ralleigh is a poet and children’s writer of Indian origin. Her poetry books for adults are A Terrible Thing (Bad Betty Press), Siren (Broken Sleep Books) and Empirical (2026, The Braag). Her two novels for children are The Destiny of Minou Moonshine and The Voyage of Sam Singh, both published by Zephyr/Bloomsbury.
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