Christmas Garden
(For Randi Gray Christensen)
After
months of guiding young brothers
abandoned
to raw cries of the streets,
years of
returning Garvey's name to the page,
a lifetime
of worrying about my children,
I limp home
to my neglected garden
in late
December as the evening sun
settles on
the forehead of broken
Madonnas
nestled in red mulch.
Palm fronds
break crisply between my fingers
smothering delicate
orchids latched
on the side
of the avocado that offered
shade in
summer but not enough
for lavenders
that withered in August heat.
Yet in a
far corner, a poinsettia that I'd written
off in
early March after caterpillars
had chewed
green from the stems,
leaving
stalks in the shadow of their wings
has bloomed
near the dry fencepost:
the fire in
its leaves as impossible
as the idea
of our redemption.
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1 comment:
Nice! Happy Holidays, Geoffrey!
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