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Hate and Morning Glories

By Aimee Murphy

Honorable Mention, Poetry, Create | Encounter 2024


"hate has no home here"

Okay, well that's all well and good to say

But hate isn't usually an invited housemate;

It's more like the morning glories out back.

Unassuming when sprouting,

(you're honestly not sure what it is,

have you seen this one before?)

and once it's blooms,

could seem attractive as f*ck.

You might even get compliments "oh how lovely it looks" from your friends (happens every year).

But while you're busy about your goings-on,

it's reaching it's long, strong tendrils

Around Everything

(And I mean EVERYTHING.)

choking out the fruit you'd planted,

stealing the richness of the soil you'd tilled.

An invasive species

That must be uprooted

from the very deepest parts.



Artist Statement:

This poem came to me after a day hard-spent in the garden, tearing out countless vines that were choking out my vegetables and fruit trees. I suddenly saw how people that I have loved have come to embrace hateful and sometimes violent ideologies like racism, ableism, and sexism: because they grow so slowly and then could even seem “beautiful” and “smart”, but they choke out the good fruit we could be growing in our lives, essentially trading one for the other.

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