everything in the garden

By | 1 February 2014

is lovely. would that mean
symmetrical? bilingualism is hardly symmetrical

consider this dimerous flower: have – have

and how English sentences bloom. with haves. with gardens. secret
but known to those who know

Danish
or plurilingual gardening

attend to all the floral whorls of have. essential and non-essential.
cut in half its semantic pistil
how many carpels fused

you gather such wordbuds to hold them (in hand), that is,
by definition, have
now you possess your own handy garden or

predicated not of you the possessor but
of the thing possessed: there is to you a garden

you stand in that dative
sheltered, in the shadow of
your property pollen-dated
to Old Norse

enclosed in garð-r you hold hafa in your hands
turn it the English way – own
turn it the Danish way – own
but turn it the Danish way again – garden

hardly symmetrical this turn of phrase
of migrant wording

‘The Use of Gardens
seems to have been the most
ancient and
most general of any
sorts of Possession among Mankind’ (OED)

you claim your garth by fingering the earth of your sentences
by planting haves and every have unfurls
to petalled

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