Root Survival

Yucca
Mandioca
Cassava
Poetry in vowels.
Survival in a root.
Hairy, fibrous, dirty
layer on the outside,
White gold inside.
Tall and scraggly
on top.
You are the garden’s
nerdy child.
Blown down by the
your bones snap at the
slightest wind,
slightest movement,
but when you touch the ground
each part of you begins
to sprout new life
to create
tiny green shoots.
Survival in a branch.
We roast you,
fry you,
boil you,
grind you,
munch you into chicha.
We all rely on your
nutty starchy innards:
pigs, chickens, humans,
what would we do without you?
Africa to South America
you have fed our ancestors
longer than we can remember.
Survival in a root.