Rhubarb Rules

what you don’t see here:
picking rhubarb in the rain
for salvation pie

Pan-Aca-demic

eighteen years finished 
with this mask that hides us all 
from society

the plants are rising
as the school year closes down
(garden life cycle)

graduation day
bleeds into normal doldrums
(life's quick, painful truths)

we'll never escape
the "boot straps" mentality
or fix these numbers

from prom to vaccine
in a short eight-hour night
(let science save us)

vaccines could save us
(yet not from the ignorance
spread without needles)

though the frost persists
spring pushes its petals through
filled with rays of hope

snowy petals fall
as spring goslings first appear
(seasoned mockery)

sometimes a small bloom
from a broken, displaced plant
is all a day needs

even its roots wait
patiently in their soil
basking in the sun