"Chamomile"

Chamomile

Along the border
of an Indiana garden
beside a cold frame

my great-grandparents
cultivated you for
the herb-blossom tea
they believed cured
most of their ills.

Oh calmer of nerves
and delirium tremens,
soother of headaches
and preventer of nightmares,
repeller of insects
and softener of hair

Oh spirit whose steamed
essence unclogged
my infected sinuses
in the Black Forest
and eased my eyelids
toward sleep

may your feathery
foliage and sunburst
flowers flourish in
the herb garden outside
the kitchen window.

from Somewhere in Southern Indiana: Poems of Midwestern Origin.
View Cover and Table of Contents