Spirit Life

"A beautiful bouquet, Bruce," Susan said.
                                                                 "Some of the flowers are dying.
"I'm going to pick them off.
                                                                 "And you can photograph them."

And I did 
                              And we dumped them in the compost pile.
Beautiful there, too.
                              Other flowers and coffee filters
                                                                               (I hope the filters are recyclable!).
Later in the morning I tied up the clematis plants
And filled the hummingbird feeder.
                                                                               Now we wait.

Birdwatching is similar to gardening.
                                                          Patience. Patience.
"Bruce," Susan called to me.
                                             "When are you going 
"To start 
             "Pulling up the roots 
                                              "In your garden?"
Soon, I thought. It is
                                Back-breaking work.
Last week I rototilled the garden.
"Eyes to future," Susan said.
                                            "You make everything beautiful, Bruce.
"Could you do me a favor, please?
"I emptied the corks out of the vase
"Holding the petunias. 
                                   "They were dying.
"Could you set the corks aside?
                                                 "For me?"

And for ten, maybe twenty, minutes
                                                         I sat and stared at the garden
While Freddy eat his bone.
I saw the garden
                          As it soon will be.