NEW HEARTS & COLD SEAS

Less An Answer, More A Meaning

ironweed spreads--
as do the shrimp plants, cigar plants,
scarlet milkweed.
and they live as a garden
when the world itself reflects a perfect irony
how we wish it was
the dust on the nigela,
and not the spidermites chewing
fat-leaf succulents
and kalanchoes.

(people, cut
decease, become jaded
the orchid:
roots shorn and leaves plucked
finds the anchor in bark
white to green as a horizon in life, it shows in roots
will there be mitts for bloom-stalks,
even with yellow spots, black edges;
to bring to the heavens)

you know how i feel
when the heavy rain
sporadic in the dawn to curtain dusk the same
turns thick dust,
all showers on clouded cow-eyes
promising future times
to the happiness it brings.
they know how i feel

meaning: whisper up
to bring the message, driving
as the distance
from foreground, to background
someday you'll understand
why they skipped the mid-ground--
straight to the last leaf
and it brings peace
with the sun, with the rain
to the life it raised
and betrayed.