A Note of Thanks

Dear Lydia,

I imagine that your recovery means a few days away from your garden, so I thought I'd bring you up-to-date.

This afternoon, your passion flowers, heaped high, bloomed mightily.  Bees buzzed and one napped like an odalisque in a fantastical painting by Dali.  Birds chirped and flitted into and out of your sunflowers.  A sulphur butterfly hung for a moment from the lip of a coneflower before winging on.  Skippers piled on Mary's zinnias, and Gulf Fritillaries swung from bloom to bloom to bloom.  So many, I had only to turn a bit here or there and snap snap snap their magnificent orange upper-wings.

I thought of last year's caterpillar, curled like a comma in a leaf, and smiled.  You grow things well, Lydia.  And I hope you know your green thumb makes me happy.

Be well,

Robley

For Mary, With a Nod to WCW

This is just to say

I didn't kill
the nymph
that lounged on
your leaf

and which
you would certainly
have squashed
at once

Forgive me
it was beautiful
so small
so nattily attired



Squash bug nymph, unsqushed, on squash leaf

By Special Request

In her absence, Lydia's garden blossoms.  May she come home soon!

Definition

To know the word
plump
find a tomato vine
hung with ripe
ripening fruit
like pendant coral
gems of the garden
sweet, tart, juiced
lift the limb
palm one tomato
careful not to
break its hold
thumb the skin
roll the weight
and know summer