Creeping Charlie was included the author’s 2021 chapbook, The Good Truth
~For Lavender (In Memoriam, May 6th, 2020)
The dragonflies
dove between the
shafts of sunlight as the baby
sat in sweet swaying grass
next to the weed-packed bucket.
We’d talked hours, our labors
hardly labor, before falling into
companionable silence, gingerly tugging
the inconsiderate vines from between
the irises in Derek’s Garden.
The humid earth called me back.
We chatted idly about flower transplants,
school trips. I was meticulous
with spade and glove, coaxing
the fertile soil back smoothly,
until, reluctantly, you admitted
defeat, making silent, round-eyed apologies.
You scooped up baby, offered good-bye
hugs, were swallowed by the shadows
of the cool sanctuary of indoors.
I lingered, tidying the garden,
pulling up the last of the Charlie vines.
As if everything wrong could be
rooted out, as if I could pull
it all from Mother Earth’s body to
save yours, toss it all among the
compost, to spread among the irises
and grow you one more day.
