Michele Sharpe: The Dead's Mistakes
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
The Mint Family
Upright, with bisexual (or perfect) flowers, open
for business to bees. Aromatherapeutic against
memory’s dead hand. Other uses: teas, salads, salves
for stings. A shield for other greens against rapacious deer.
A shared geometry: stems near-perfect squares
in cross-section. Called Lamiaceae now, meaning deadnettle,
meaning not-a-nettle. Or possibly to nettle without sting,
like jolts of memory that don’t make one shrink.
Their long-dead name was Labiatae, as in labial.
Lipped, moist, impressionable. Easily stung,
yet they overrun gardens in bee balms, spearmints,
and sages. Re-member: no family’s perfect.
Some harp on the dead’s mistakes instead
of their memories, but The Mints come close
to perfect, modeling refreshment and courage,
their flowers unafraid of stings, open to all the bees.
Michele Sharpe, a poet and essayist, is also a high school dropout, hepatitis C survivor, adoptee, and former trial attorney. She's written for The New York Times, Witness, The Washington Post, and Poets & Writers. Poems can be found in B O D Y, Poet Lore, North American Review, Stirring, and Baltimore Review. Michele recently completed her second memoir; her first is Walk Away, published under her previous name, Michele Leavitt. More at http://michelesharpe.com.
