how does your garden grow....?

relaxing back at whippoorwill after DC
a day & two before the westward-ho trip
across canada with my cousin, marilyn..

the garden has sprouted up..
broccoli in the salads already..
fresh basil and herbs join in..
the corn is knee high, at least..
fresh blueberries in our pancakes!

cultivating my own patch... of laundry,
i must have been a dhobi-wala*
in my last many incarnations..
reveling in hanging clothes on the line..
the gentle whip of a muggy breeze
on dhotis and tee shirts..
and yes, yes.. clothespins..

it was too hot and humid to move
so we draped ourselves like dripping syrup
over anything horizontal in the screened-in porch..
~ dubbed porchville by donna ~
we spoke of random kindnesses that open the heart..
listened to one another take turns snoring the afternoon tunes,
every dog present to witness our musings
while the garden kept pushing up dirt to feed the farm....


i used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day,
and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny
with a love that nobody could share or conceive of
who had never taken part in the process of creation.
it was one of the most bewitching sights in the world
to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil,
or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently
to trace a line of delicate green...
~nathaniel hawthorne
mosses from an old manse

* laundry person in india