Hoary Alison
Berteroa incana

Precision has no gallantry. The texts call her
medium, hairy annual, grey with hairs,
untoothed, sometimes obscurely toothed.

She’s an extremely common weed; often found
on road and railways, docks. Our heroine
is casual of waste ground, docks, rubbish heaps, etc.

Cut her some slack; you’re no angel. To be fair,
the derelict and dodgy simply offered habitats
in which she could establish: we all start somewhere.

She thrives then in bare places, takes hold as she can.
Sometimes casual for one year only: sometimes persistent.
Slight tendency to be more persistent in the London area.

Persistently she moves on, small-flowered, little noticed;
fills another barren space. So, she’s Eastern,
often introduced with foreign seed. Behaves in Britain

as in Europe. I can’t throw stones; I have back stories.
If ‘traffic’ was the cause of introduction, she is not to blame.
She throws down roots like gauntlets, settles with

a degree of permanence in some cultivated areas;
seeks longer seasons, better habitat. We understand
the British climate may be sub-optimal to long-term survival.

Given its historical occurrence here, there is no reason why
populations should not be part of our cultural heritage.
Windblown; welcome to our gutters, ghettoes, bitter earth.

Jo Bell is an award-winning poet and former director of National Poetry Day. She is the Canal Laureate for the UK, appointed by the Poetry Society and Canal and River Trust. She lives on her 67-foot narrowboat in the English Midlands, and is working on a new one-woman show called CUT.

Quotes taken from Karran & Rich, Geographical and Temporal Distributions of Alyssum Alyssoides and Berteroa Incana… (2003)

Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter.
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