Garden Out the Door

Garden Out the Door


In of the box-stack-house I dwell
For many a year since hermit's birth;
Come rain, come shine tucked in my shell
Never much wended beauteous earth.
This one morning the rains were close-
Packed like a storm-bath to drown a bird,
And I in stale daydreams of bard
From reverie thus quick arose -
The sound of dad filling his pail
Hence out to feed the plants would he;
(The lines of green in the corridor
Lovingly tended by hand and bail).
And trice! gathered thoughts, out the door -
A rain-cat's yearn for biology -
Light-slippered feet as rains so tread
And I thus in deep learning's need
Heard dad teach through hand and pail:

In every fern there's a thing called life
Lesser to mammal without the soul;
But by no less has God by strife
Bestowed each their growth to pole:
Through hand and pail of toll, you see
Step by step we sow our seeds
And sweat through age to tend their needs
(Say a cocoon amongst the leaves -
To spread his wings must push through sheaves
Of silk-spun leaflike shell did he)

Look! that green cherry 'neath her shade
As if shy of clouds to peek,
Leaves' parasol of nature made
Hid her youth like maiden meek;
Then another lady! another man!
This young lad well past his prime -
Lush red star 'midst green to scan -
And I cherry-faced with eyes sublime
Saw through leaves the rains had thinned
(Somewhere to my left old dad
His telling voice long dipped as wind
But rustling through my mind a tad);

And now once more from reverie
This from fresh scents of rain and bloom -
Sweet from stale of monotony -
A heal bell to my thinking gloom;
And turned from orchids, in the door
Lithe as a cat to bedroom tread
And rhyme to page thought's cocoon shed
To pen this garden to sweet Lenore.