I start as a seed
Cast down from high above me
Wakened by spring rain.

I seek the sunlight
Yet find only darkness here
Stem pale as a ghost.

The sisters stand tall
Hiding me from the panda
Black, white, and deadly.

I lift my neck up
And grow like fire into sky
Green, tall, and strong.

One hundred years pass,
Flower once and then perish
Men come to take me

I won’t bend to break
bamboo patch on a steel bridge
stepped upon yet proud.

Of green I am Queen
A community of grass
My children growing