Neil Leadbeater
Afternoon in the Fern House
For JJN
Being young, you do not see
how these hybrid spleenworts hide their spores
on the underside of leaves.
At this age, you quickly lose interest,
preferring to play with the dinosaurs
we bought in the toyshop earlier.
A neat script translates the names of plants.
One day you will be able to mint
the coinage of this language
even though the word polypody comes from the Greek
meaning many footed
referring to its growth pattern.
In other houses
you will find the rarer ferns:
calcicolous ones such as the brittle bladder
and those that are found on rocks and screes
in the solitary ranges
of the outermost mountains.
Further afield
you will discover a far more alien species:
a tree fern from Australia
and, most curious of all, the mosquito fern
from tropical America
(an aquatic type that would pass at a glance
for liverwort).
But that is enough for one day.
Your father has seen enough. He will choose his time
to speak to you
in words entirely his own.
Slowly you will come to know
all there is to be known.
Page(s) 145
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