Midwife


Good gardening is midwifery.

Don't be afraid to finger the root,

testing nerves of mycelia, sending thumbs

along the bone of Spring, blindly probing

the dark, guided by a spasm of bulbs,

turning the breached child toward its world.

 

Don't be afraid to tap absences, black holes

where fur sleeps, curled in a dream of moons,

seeds hunker in secret white heat, or to probe

among the buds where beaks weave

twigs into a whirling stillness for the egg.

Be your own ember.

The sun might disappoint you.

 

The destination is gray stuff in cocoons,

neither wing nor worm.

You pretend to know the conclusion,

but the journey dissolves in crepuscule,

a deer path winding back into the green

gloom of wildness, a labyrinth, with you

forever standing at the center, lost.

 

It's been raining all day. Feral poppies

poke red dwarf stars from vigils of loam,

enchanted by the grief of sky.

What is your knowledge compared

to the yearning of the shadow for its cause?

 

Let darkness be your asymptote. Bend light.

Winter nearly touches Spring now.

 

Just keep dancing at the center of dusk,

coaxing hyacinths to bloom

from the hollow between your thoughts,

encouraging clouds to breathe, push, crown...

deliver the raindrop.




Artist: Wendy Andrew

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