Luring water
By Anne Elvey
Published 14 July 2021
With filaments thread by threaded hand
they delve into the mineral grains
& standing, lure water from the sand.
Spreading roots in coastal land
they follow a want through porous veins
with filaments thread by threaded hand.
Ancient seas in memory stand
where cone & bristle catch the rains.
Jagged, they lure water from the sand.
Companion acids they have planned
to gather up moisture like a skein
of filaments thread by threaded hand.
They honey sweetness on a land
older than their botanical names
& standing, lure water from the sand.
With gnarl & twist, they answer the land
testing the wind from bareness gained
through filaments thread by threaded hand.
By habit, they lure water from the sand.
Notes
The villanelle form is quaint perhaps and European but allows for repetition and the idea of drawing sustenance as a kind of love song, a song of mortality, finitude and liveliness.
Gratitude to Pauline Brightling for email correspondence about coast banksias.
References
Grierson, P. F., ‘Organic acids in the rhizosphere of Banksia integrifolia L.f.’, Plant and Soil 144, no. 2 (August 1992), pp. 259-85.
Lim, T.K. ‘Banksia integrifolia’, in Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants: Volume 8, Flowers (Dordrecht: Springer, 2014), pp. 658-60.