Today’s offering was inspired by a query about flooding on yesterday’s Gardener’s Question Time!
The allotment had suffered when the river burst its banks. She’d heard the factory just upstream had been flooded too, though there was nothing on the news.
Predictably, nettles and dandelions were the first to recover, rising lurid and verdant from the mud. The nettles raised blisters on her legs, and the milk that spilled from dandelion stems corroded her gloves. She eyed the soil for signs of radish or bean.
At last, the hardy little alpine strawberries began to flower. Soon, the bright crimson berries seemed almost to glow.
Rachael tasted the fruits of her labour.
Sweet, sickly. Deadly.
Tom Juniper Poetry 