Silphium

by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer

I don’t know
I’m no expert
maybe it is or maybe it isn’t 

let’s say it is
let’s say silphium didn’t die
in the gut of a greedy emperor

let’s say the ancient cure-all
survived millennia
as a yellow-blooming weed

in the foothills
of an active volcano
almost two-thousand kilometers

from where the last
living plant was recorded
being eaten by mad Nero

because in a poem
we can do things
like that let’s say it

because if silphium survived
what else might
our terrible human history?

Nathaniel Lachenmeyer is an award-winning disabled author of books for children and adults. His first book, The Outsider, which takes as its subject his late father’s struggles with schizophrenia and homelessness, was published by Broadway Books. His most recent book, an all-ages graphic novel called The Singing Rock & Other Brand-New Fairy Tales, was published by First Second/Macmillan. Nathaniel lives outside Atlanta with his family. www.NathanielLachenemeyer.com