Allelopath
Christina Lloyd
A doctoral candidate at Lancaster University, Christina Lloyd's poems appear in various journals, most recently in The North and forthcoming in Epoch. She holds a master's in creative writing from Lancaster University and a master's in Hispanic languages and literatures from U.C. Berkeley.
Hong Kong // San Francisco
I.
You saw a corpse flower
in the tropics once. You said
nobody here could ever imagine
its heavy, crusted lobes
or bear its colossal stench.
II.
Spaniards cast mustard seeds
along the coast, hoping
they would grow and blaze yellow,
ensure a centuries-old trail
back down to Mexico.
Their roots and forked stems
still prevent native plants
from flourishing,
their chemistry incendiary.
III.
Somehow you knew
the Muir Woods sapling
you nursed for years
would grow to dwarf
the houses on Arguello.