Lessons to learn from herbicide-resistant waterhemp
Resilience, not reaction. Frustrated farmers will think
resistance a bridge to burn when they get to it. Burning
bridges leaves no way off the island except swimming.
Commonly known as tall waterhemp, Amaranthus
tuberculatus is persistent in Iowa fields. Resilience,
not escalation, a quiet death and life giving from
generation to generation.
This is the benefit of paying attention. Write down
what —cide means to you.
Herbi-
Pesti-
Geno-
means required resistance, with
reaction, resilience.
Caroliena Cabada was the recipient of the 2018-2019 Pearl Hogrefe Fellowship in Creative Writing at Iowa State University, where she is currently earning her MFA in Creative Writing and Environment. Her poetry has been published in Verse-Virtual, As It Ought To Be Magazine, The Orchards Poetry Journal, and Eunoia Review, and has been anthologized in Lyrical Iowa. She can be found @cecaroliena on both Twitter and Instagram.
