Thursday, March 7, 2019

Women's History Month: Anna Cates' "In the Garden"


IN THE GARDEN 

Ohio August
mild from El Nino
the sun broods like a neighbor over 
Rolling Terrace Trailer Park Home   
you taste the dust 
from the pot-holed pavement 
as you pace the garden
like the Georgian peasant
in her gypsy kerchief 
tending the cabbage patch
beside the communal farm
antique tractors riding adamic sod
in camaraderie for MotherCountry
like the picture book of communist Russia 
I checked out from the Paris
Public Library—when was it—1988?

The primordial garden welcomes us back
tomatoes sag on the vines
sunflowers droop like withered breasts
shading burgeoning beans
we trespass into okra
hovering above the mint leaves
scenting the breeze 
beside the Rose of Sharon
and broken corn stocks 
bereft of any scarecrow 
  
The primeval archetype envelops us
we sink forward with the tomatoes
amazed to behold such weeds 
we dry out and bend like the sunflowers 
having no other recourse 
but to bow low

 © 2019 Anna Cates


 Anna Cates is a graduate of Indiana State University (M.A. English and Ph.D. Curriculum & Instruction/English) and National University (M.F.A. Creative Writing).  Her first collections of poetry and fiction, The Meaning of Life and The Frog King, were published by Cyberwit Press, and her second poetry collection, The Darkroom, by Prolific Press.  She lives in Ohio with her two beautiful kitties and teaches education and English online, including graduate courses in creative writing. 


Anna Cates’ Amazon Author’s homepage:   
Anna Cates on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/anna.cates.58
Anna Cates on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/catesanna
Anna Cates at Deviant Art:  https://www.deviantart.com/annacates/gallery/
Anna Cates in the “Living Haiku Anthology”: 
http://livinghaikuanthology.com/poet-portfolios/290-c-poets/anna-cates.html

1 comment:

  1. Nice, Anna. Connect immediately with the Ohio imagery. Love your work. Fan here!

    ReplyDelete