THE COURTSHIP OF WINDS

Cheryl Byler Keeler

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Three Days of Digging

 

…we kneel

on the resilient ground

trying to befriend the soil

we must become.

--Linda Pastan, Espaliered Pear Trees

 

Three days of digging in the dirt I must 

become. Kneeling on, bending over,

bowing to the lively soil.

 

My fingernails teem with bacteria,

endorphin peace of the gardener.

I move slowly and try to gather grace.

 

Dig lungwort, hostas, blue-eyed grass;

shovel compost, do not think.

My fingers are busy

 

but I keep my mind flat.

It is necessary not to figure things out.

It is necessary to dig and be dirty

 

to kneel and bend and bow.

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