Salix koriyanagi ‘Rubykins’ Vilmorin has long been a tree

has long been a tree of distinction in the American landscape

or an evergreen screen in a damp

and deeply furrowed along the veins

so the whole shrub reads as a soft silver mound that lights a hot

Site the shrub where the late-winter perfume will be caught daily

Salix koriyanagi ‘Rubykins’ Vilmorin has long been a treeThe willows gave the world its first painkiller. Willow bark, steeped by Greek and Native American healers alike for fever and ache, carries salicin, the compound nineteenth century chemists refined into salicylic acid and, in time, aspirin, which still wears the genus name buried in the chemistry. This particular willow comes by a quieter trade. Salix koriyanagi is the Korean basket willow, the name meaning just that, long grown across Korea, Japan,