So Fresh

summer garden joys:
second of many salads
grown and cut by me

A Tree Grows in Denver

family tradition:
plant trees for graduates
and watch how they grow

my mother's tree stands
at my great-aunt's former home
taller than us all

my sister's tree shades
disappearing middle-class 
(our childhood home)

and my tree shocks me
evading the ash borer
with grandiose grace

thank you for the “no.”
as phallic as this lupine
(allium ignored)

i will learn from this
(things i tell myself at night)
and grow a sagebrush

it will bloom purple
(you can’t see my true color)
and you can’t taste it

yet, here it blossoms
as beautiful as the home 
you constantly loathe

i know. i know. i…
you don’t see what i see. stop.
but god. how it hurts.

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

the best time of year
is strawberry-rhubarb pie
(yes, it's a season)

baked by my daughter
the sweet and sour combo
shines as bright as spring

a midnight rainstorm
brought early this raging creek
and stole seed-planting

yet, cycle views burst
with blossoms of spring color
saving the lost day

rock border, hostas,
and a new lupine. work day
saturday success.

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

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

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