Men talking to houseplants...

Also purchased The Charge by Patrick Donnelly. Some poems from it here and here.



His poem to his variegated begonia reminded me, superficially, of Ted Roethke's poem to his geranium. I thought Roethke's the much crankier poem, till I looked again. "The things she endured! / The dumb dames shrieking half the night / Or the two of us, alone, both seedy, / Me breathing booze at her...."



Donnelly's a direct address (he said, after Koch's): "...I who / left you in a dish of water for weeks at a time, / who couldn't live my life to suit a plant goddammit...."



At least they didn't yell "bitch" at their houseplants.



I feel really guilty about that.