Roots and Grass Grew In

We cannot see it change and shift,
because we are a part of it.
We cannot be an outside observer,
we can only awe from our station within it.

A non-juvenile, coarse, layered root
had grown over a glass bottle,
solidly holding it together
adopting it, and using it as part of its system,
hinting at when the bottle had been tossed there
many years ago.

Yet another life force grew over a plastic white bag,
partially wrapped around a tree root, exposed.
Tearing it apart at the edges where smaller, newer roots and soil grew in—
like patch work, the bag, soil and roots, intertwined.
The young roots gave more easily
as I tugged to loosen the pieces from the soil—
one large and two small.
I dislodged it from the system it had become a part of.
With it, a large piece of soil with small roots threaded inside.
Carefully laying the piece of alive dirt back,
I knew it would return to connect to its full form without hesitation.
Nature finds ways and succeeds
I hesitated.
Perhaps, I didn’t even need to clean up the plastic bag.
The tree and grass were thriving
despite it.
Even man-made waste succumbs to such power.

~ Megan Schulz ~