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.
Anna Cates on Twitter: https://twitter.com/catesanna
Anna Cates at Deviant Art: https://www.deviantart.com/
Anna Cates in the “Living Haiku Anthology”:
http://livinghaikuanthology.
Nice, Anna. Connect immediately with the Ohio imagery. Love your work. Fan here!
ReplyDelete