Nevertheless

You"ve seen a strawberry

that"s had a struggle; yet

was, where the fragments met,

a hedgehog or a star-

fish for the multitude

of seeds. What better food

than apple-seeds - the fruit

within the fruit - locked in

like counter-curved twin

hazel-nuts? Frost that kills

the little rubber-plant-

leaves of kok-saghyz-stalks, can"t

harm the roots; they still grow

in frozen ground. Once where

there was a prickly-pear-

leaf clinging to barbed wire,

a root shot down to grow

in earth two feet below;

as carrots form mandrakes

or a ram"s horn root some-

times. Victory won"t come

to me unless I go

to it; a grape-tendril

ties a knot in knots till

knotted thirty times, -- so

the bound twig that"s under-

gone and over-gone, can"t stir.

The weak overcomes its

menace, the strong over-

comes itself. What is there

like fortitude! What sap

went through that little thread

to make the cherry red!