Dandelion Tree Wish

The woody-stemmed, giant dandelions
Of the chain of Juan Fernández Islands

Don’t much resemble their backyard cousins,
Which is unfortunate, since it’s pleasant

To imagine a day spent wandering
Wonderstruck, a sudden Lilliputian

Among a forest of dandelions,
Their enormous yellow or puffball heads

Nodding at the height of basketball hoops,
Seeds sailing umbrella-sized parachutes.

Too bad that, outside of fractal patterns,
Life can rarely scale its morphologies,

Thanks largely to things like surface tension,
Surface-to-volume growth asymmetry,

And the bottomless needs of gravity.
If a Jomon spider could grow as large

As a gorilla but keep its figure,
Or if humans could shrink without further

Distorting already huge, lolling heads,
Life could be like fairytale CGI.

Instead, island biogeography
Reforms its forms. Oh, well. Nice trees. Don’t sneeze.