The Vigorous Fig

Cherry

By Turlough

Thu, 03 Aug 2023
  • 2144 reads
17 comments
 

How can you be, oh little fig tree

That you grow from a wall so much higher than me?

You grow with no soil and you grow with no water                             

From a vertical surface from which you ought to

Plummet and perish somewhere on the ground

But instead you’re alive in this niche that you’ve found

 

I’ve spent lots of time and a fair bit of dough

Planting shoots from big fig trees, though they never grow

I could be an oul’ cheat and get one from the shop

In its sunny location it would soon yield a crop

But it’s so satisfying to propagate life one’s self

Where is the pleasure if it’s bought off-the-shelf?

 

Your seed found a crevice in my four metre wall

The minutest wee hole that I can’t see at all

Surviving the drought and sun’s Balkan degrees

You’re a tough little cookie; the Rambo of trees

But how did you get there? That’s got me perplexed

Oh the wonders of nature, and whatever next?

 

Image:

Every image I use is from a photograph I have taken myself. 

On this occasion – A baby fig tree that has chosen to completely defy not just the cruel elements of a fierce Bulgarian summer but also gravity as it sprouts from a stone wall in my garden without any help from me.

Certificate U
Poem
Poetry in Commotion
Nature

Comments

Submitted by Di_Hard on

guessing it is the magic of bird poo :0) I was wondering to myself why so many things producing berries which birds like to eat (raspberries, brambles, ivy, cotoneaster...) just happen to spring up beside places birds like to sing from, like fences and garden walls :0)

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Well that's exactly what I was wondering about Di, but it's on the side of the wall rather than the top, as if the bird poo was smeared on rather than just dropped. Do birds get involved in dirty protests like prisoners do?

Turlough

Submitted by Turlough on

for the cherries. 

Whoever it was that gave me them. This always mystifies me.

But I'm ever so grateful. 

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

erm this maybe several puns too far...
trickledown peckanomics?

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I'll stifle a groan and admit that it's pun of the week so far.

Turlough

Submitted by celticman on

whatever next indeed. I don't think I've tasted a fig, but I proably have. Fig roll. Yuck. 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I haven't seen fig rolls for years. I think they disappeared with the lard and the spam.

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

:0) sorry shall delete if you like

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

no pun too bad for ABCTales - that is our motto. How curious Turlough! It's beautiful, but I wonder if it's safe to leave it there? I have brick and flint walls and am forever pulling plants which destroy the mortar. Figs can also grow VERY BIG

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Years ago I entered a pun writing competition in our local newspaper. I wrote one and then immediately thought of another. It was so easy I couldn't stop. Eventually I had ten of them so I sent them all off to the newspaper office in town thinking that at least one of them would win me a prize. Unfortunately no pun in ten did.

I know what you mean about the baby fig tree. It'll be planted in the ground when the weather changes but for the time being it looks nice. Fig trees grow like weeds here. We already have around half a dozen in our garden. 

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

"no pun in ten did" what were they thinking?! Must have had punishingly high standards not to choose one of yours!

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

It's like seeing little rowan or hawthorn trees growing out of crevices in the rocks on the mountains. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Turlough on

The very same Rhiannon! 

Turlough

Submitted by marandina on

"Surviving the drought and sun’s Balkan degrees

You’re a tough little cookie; the Rambo of trees..."

I can picture Sylvestor Stallone, head-band an' all. Your fig tree sounds like a real warrior. All nicely done, of course :)

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Unlike the plum tree which is a bit Larry Grayson!

Thanks very much Paul. I always appreciate your comments and find them encouraging.

Turlough

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I sometimes think mother nature has different plans than us humans Turlough, she always surprises me.

I really liked your poem which reminds me that although we can help nature along, we cannot control our enviroment completely...in the end it will do exactly what it wants, which in a way is a good thing.

Some great rhyming here too, and very much enjoyed.

Jenny.

 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Having lived in towns and cities for most of my life I find that now I am surrounded by all this wonderful nature I am no longer a member of the dominant species.

Thank you Jenny for you words and for taking the time to read mine.

Turlough