Single worm,
now multiplying daily
in a dense green plastic dome
of kitchen waste beneath the plum tree.
Devouring vegetation,
feeding
on the sweat of leaves,
ingesting their fibre,
offloading rich humus,
and transforming carbon.
Avarice is their secret,
these writhing pink clusters,
trapped beneath a humming lid,
where odour and heat
oscillate like steam in the dark.
All those welded knots of
wise worms,
fattening
towards death,
till organic waste
reinvents as garden mulch.
Barbara Lawton
One of the Headingley Open Gardens collection. Click to see the full list