WE are going out to fix the garden
dormant ground for years
overgrown weed trees &
shrubs now tree tall
it is a miracle anything survived
in thick Texas soil
parched & cracked in summer’s
ninety degrees & climbing
our sweat pours out
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille with the word fix.
Travelling with the storm perched over the canyon we head to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon both going there the storm moving faster along the rim while we drive over the plateau happy to be dry in these moments arriving at the campground everything is wet but the storm has passed the sky clears revealing the colors of layers of chiseled rock lit by the setting sun
Two years later I travel that same road there is no storm but snow is on the ground where the Cat Fire burned last summer we watched it burning from deep in the canyon hotshot fire fighters called in helicopters fly in and out delivering their load plumes of smoke rise over the Kaibab Forest we float safe on the water of the Colorado River and smell the air from 8,200 feet above now the snow covered ground hides the char of the Cat Fire black surrounds the base of these ponderosa pines others are burned completely pinyon junipers pine needles scrub brush 4500 acres burnt from a lightning strike
you’ve stood for so long
swayed by wind
a dance in forest
habitat
home
life maker
today you are a resource
put on trucks
and roll away
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NaPoWriMo prompt
bees gather pollen
make honey to eat so sweet
to me it’s a sneeze
how my weeping eyes
itch and burn for fallen trees
remember the bee
hives on the branches
they really will replant this
by giving them time
we can defeat this
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dVerse prompt on “gathering” in quadrille form as the pollen is falling in my neighborhood and the logging trucks are coming to clear cut the neighbor’s property
I went out to tend the grass
try to make it greener
midlawn is a forty foot volunteer
a silver poplar
and I regret I did not plant fruit trees
but rather let this one live
to bring shade
what’s a tree to me
something to climb
or hang from
to see a bird in
hide from another
or take a branch
and run some
what’s a tree to me
watch the sun shine
through in the morning
that bee hives hang from
a high wind could bend it
or crack the wood
when a storm come
that’s what a tree is to me
___________________________
a prompt from toads – back to childhood
the Japanese call it tree bathing
soaking oneself in the green of trees
the branches a melody in wind
their stoic presence
find yourself a tree bath
walk there daily
see if you are cleansed
