Weeds

The trick is knowing
 what to pull out
 and what to leave.
It's hard to tell at first,
 when things are just sprouting.
It all looks green and promising
 until the leaves start to take
 their mature form.

After years of gardening,
 I'm pretty good at telling the difference.
I can discern
 which humble beginnings
 will bear the fruit I intended
 and which will choke the life
 out of everything good.
It took some mistakes to get here,
 but in the garden it's pretty easy.

In real life it's much harder,
because sometimes those weeds
just taste
so
damn
good.