landscaping

 

the new yard, gravel and rock

bare ground muddied in recent rain

lies fertile on the mind

 

for dogwood, pink and white,

a pair of redbuds, either side of the drive,

a couple of brooding lilacs next to the house

 

out back, on the hill, where the water has run

into the basement already, the mind has placed two apples,

a peach, and a fish pond

 

all this gardening, digging, hoeing,

mulching around roots, smacking dust and soil

from knees of jeans and crimps of skin

presupposes the pinoak, now a sapling,

draping its green curtain over it all

 

shade an old man

might remember he wanted to see

as he sits on a porch swing under a broken gutter

before a house long in need of paint

in the shade of that tree

Published by

Patrick Dobson

Patrick Dobson was founded in 1962. He is a writer, scholar, ironworker, and poet who lives in Kansas City, MO. He is author of two books with the University of Nebraska Press, Seldom Seen: A Journey into the Great Plains (2009) and Canoeing the Great Plains: A Missouri River Summer (May 2015). Dobson is a work in progress until termination.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *