The Vine that Ate the South
Driving through Tennessee,
there are tree-shaped heaps of kudzu.
It clings to mountain- and hill-side,
crawls up telephone poles and
drips from electric lines.
It eats away at the insides of trees
and uses only their bones for structure,
like the wasp that lays its eggs
inside the spider,
waiting for them to consume its flesh
and burrow their way out.
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I did notice vines hiking in Tennessee that I hadn’t seen farther north. The vines in my backyard are choking the other plants. Your poem gets at their relentlessness.