MEDITATION ON A SWEET POTATO

The scientific Latin name
for the kūmara, following the pattern

as laid down by Linaeus

is Ipomoea batatas; “batatas” is

relatively straightforward

Neo-Latin for “potato” and “Ipomoea”

is based on the Greek:

“ips”, meaning “worm”, and “homoios”,

meaning “same”, from the resemblance

of the sweet potatoe

to a slow fat grub,

but in te reo Māori,

“ipo moea” in correct syntax

as “moea i po” is to dream in the night

like a kūmara buried in its mound of earth.

Coincidentally,

Kumara is a name of the Hindu war god

Murugan, and the four child sages

Sanaka, Sanatana, Sanandana

and Sanatkumara, born of Brahma’s mind.