A pretty purple flower – so deceivingly beautiful
Thin green leaves intertwined—a crush of death
Below the soil surface parasitic roots
Grasping, clutching, sucking the nutrients—and life
The leaves of its host – grain for daily food
Yellowing, sapped of strength
Meant to feed a family
That may now go hungry
On the outside a loving marriage
Two green plants interwoven in the field
In reality of horribly slow murder
A hidden deadly grip, covered by dark dirt
Striga is the name, elegant in itself
Lively and green, readily abundant
Self-multiplying—but ferocious
It just won’t go away
Perhaps a good reminder to us
Of things in life that seem so beautiful
Yet in the end they lead only to death
…of partnerships that kill us
Sometimes what is lovely on the outside
Is really destroying us underneath
Sometimes what is closest to us
Is really a deadly clasp
Pulling out the weed
Kills its productive host
Innocent victim of a parasitic plant
Some good gets lost when bad is removed
© Lukas Westevy
2006