Finding Joy in a Garden

Finding Joy in a Garden

The woman in the garden grows her flowers –

with care

Tending the array of blooms so to nurture for her family’s safe keeping

someday

A lifetime of planting and gathering so together

they grow love

The many seasons come one by one; folding and opening

into blooms of nostalgia

Until imperceptibly - the garden grows dim where familiar things become strangely

unfamiliar

Where are her things; her garden wears; are they carefully put away -

In a closet somewhere?

Are the garden tools, with wooden handles, stored and separated –

neatly aligned;

Or perhaps they were laid down casually; or misplaced in some forgotten drawer -

someplace?

Maybe stored in an imaginary shed, where keep the seeds and other secrets –

behind dissolving walls?

The glean of the rich emerald summers is a fade of seaweed-green

hues

And, Mother draws back her generous warmth as the day’s light

wanes

Leaving the cold onerous night to touch at the edges

where there are old pains

Yellow rose and red hydrangea flower petals strewn across the garden paths

like quilted blankets

While she sits in her garden, with unattached memories, her fears holding

her alone together and alone

And gathers her hands in close with her blanket of flowers that she weaved

as a master florist

Her unspoken thoughts are hidden and masked by the layers of a long life

lived  

Dwelling at each of the fifty October's that came and went

in wedded celebration

As she plays with each flower petal so to find the girl who is the woman

in the garden

For Fall was never about falling – it was and will always be about the joy of finding

her loving Nibs.