On a still summer evening,
near the trees’ looking glass,
I developed the fidgets
from eyes in the grass.
I share my shade gladly,
I grant it rent-free,
so why this imperious
staring at me?
Magnanimous me,
all live-and-let-live —
could they be thinking the shade
is not mine to give?
And so it begins
genesis
triumphant bow
or nemesis
the garden that was
the one that will be
hover in mind
tantalizingly
evolving in increments
slow, heuristic
I allow a trifle
narcissistic.
And so, dear reader, with this first purchase,
begins the adventure of turning someone else’s garden into mine.
Someone else’s garden
is someone else’s history
I watch with stranger’s eyes
and savor its snow-covered mystery.
I might be the new owner
of the land on which it grows
but that doesn’t make it mine
as every gardener knows.
For a while I’m just its keeper
cautious in staking claim
hoping the new owners of mine
will lovingly do the same.
Oddments 