They show us how to live.

The straight corn-shoot
anchors those twining tendrils of the bean,
the second sister, who works underground
to fertilise the soil.

The squash, third to emerge,
spreads bristly leaves
which shelter and protect.

This is a trinity of gifts
offered by First Peoples:

a diet
of starch, protein, vitamins; of tastes
which enhance each other.

a composition
of living colours, shifting textures, shapes;
of sky-seeking verticals whose line
is softened by spirals;

while green, the host colour,
plays and shifts
ripens to yellow, swells into bold shapes
of saturated orange:

a way of living
surprising those who join its generous flow:
by growing together each becomes
more fully themself.

The Puritan invaders did not see.
Their eyes, which looked for rows of monocrops,
saw only a muddle.

But we must see, and fast.
The three sisters
show us how to free our colonised earth;

how to grow our selves
in a diversity
that is creative one-ing.

Diane Pacitti, 2023