Skeletons of garden past
Shrunken, shriveled earth amassed
Crustacean critters sow, and pill
Worms that wiggle, grubs be still
Rock and leaf and loam and twig
Reduced in size by time turned dig
Memories of scent and sound
Recognizable form cannot be found
Who were you in bright of day
Rooted, leafed, now in decay?
Could tell the tale of thrush’s song
Of water’s soak, when days were long?
Butterfly’s fan rests in the layer
The height of corn and mantis prayer
Eye of storm and songbird’s ode
Hint of rain an d hop of toad
Gone is glint of beetle’s shield
Golden wheat waves in the field
Shock of corn and moan of hay
Pod of pea and crack of clay
Lost is wilt and stress from sun
Frozen dreams when garden’s done
Petaled pleasures flowers flown
Silenced now the insect drone
Gone is grasp of tendril’s grip
The taste of nectar from blossom sip
Cut of worm and scrap of scale
Hornet’s sting and marks from hail
Melon’s swell and print of paw
Tumbled weed and rodent’s gnaw
Spider’s thread and lizard’s leap
Now compose this piled heap
Sunflower’s track, grasshopper’s spree
Seed cases left when the shoot broke free
Furrow forgotten, cicada call,
Stubbled stalk that once stood tall
Peaches wearing summer’s kiss
Water’s log and serpent’s hiss
Comet light and shooting star
Canned on cupbo ard shelves in jar
Between the confines of ground and sky
The garden grows and then must die
To feed the future on its way,
Grave becomes cradle, another replay.
Loving the earth one has to respect
The difference between nurture and neglect
The taking and the giving back
To continue the cycle without a lack
When soil is rich, abundance abounds
So I sift, moving mounds
From cow and field and tree and horse
Return to earth generational force
Compost keeps my soil in health
This black gold, unpriceable wealth
The garden gives back what cannot be bought
And this I share as food for thought.