How did I come to share my home
with a carnivorous plant?
I’m not the sort to go out and buy a venus fly trap
just so I can show it off to my friends.
I do not feel more witchy or impressive because of it.
(To be certain, I did show it off, when it arrived.
After all, it’s a plant that eats things.)
There is a sort of a story to how it wound up coming home with me,
but the gist of it is that,
like most unexpected objects in one’s home, it was a gift.
I did not know much about it, at the time.
For instance, I did not know – though I suspected –
That venus fly traps are notoriously hard to cultivate.
I also did not know – though I should have suspected –
that they have flowers.
In the Spring long stalks grow up from
the nest of tiny green mouths
and are crested with white flowers
appallingly sweet
and quite lovely.
I thought I knew what surprises
the venus fly trap had to offer.
I thought perhaps it would help get rid of the minute, slow-flying insects
that appear whenever I am too slow eating my fruit.
It turns out they don’t like flying insects much.
If I’m lucky it will eat up my ants when Summer comes,
but in the meantime most of its little maws are closed and brown.
It takes energy to make a flower.