The Gardener
Idyllic Graves
Here is the gate
Its hinges are braided with ivy
And hair from the years
You would rather misplace
Beyond it
Apple trees lean under bitter fruit
A row of lilies has gone blind
From facing the wall
You planted the first bed
With a child's unguarded hands
Later
Whatever shouted loudest
Received your water
I remember one seed
Small as a grain of sleep
Pressed into the earth
After someone taught me shame
I visited it at night
Fed it whole conversations
By morning
Its pale root had found my chest
Years passed
I decorated the trunk
Hung excuses from the limbs
Called the shade protection
The garden kept no calendar
It measured care
By the depth of water
The warmth of a palm
The blade left rusting in the shed
I am the gardener
Of this weather under skin
My touch becomes a season
Attention makes it begin again
Come close enough to see me
With the soil along my arms
I will read each buried pattern
Before they harden into harm
Begin beneath the rosemary
A nest of thorns
The cedar hides something
A door
Open it
Tools wrapped in cloth
Still bright
Where the rust could not reach
Other hands may enter
When I unlatch the gate
They can hold the lamp
Carry water
Bind a branch split by winter
The cut waits for my hand
I must choose it
Help becomes a living thing
Only where the garden opens
I am the gardener
Of this weather under skin
My touch becomes a season
Attention makes it begin again
Come close enough to see me
With the soil along my arms
I will read each buried pattern
Before they harden into harm
Prune while the branch is narrow
Dig
While the root still yields
The forest begins
Below the thumbnail
Inside one unattended inch
Of earth
I kneel where the lilies failed
Their bulbs are firm
Quiet
Waiting beneath the damage
For a different angle of Sun
I am the gardener
The gate swings from my breastbone
What I carry through this opening
Will become the ground I live in
Soil runs along my arms
The blade returns to use
I have found the first small root
Now
I choose
Mind the step
The garden changes level here