Start with the smallest seeds.
The kind where few can thrive
Some soil well-prepared,
plus windows full of sun,
And last for those who care
A lifetime made of dreams
Wet soil urged the seedlings up
Bursting to the light
Green and lanky, yearning to grow
They battled for life and significance.
Leaves followed, then retreated
Making room for small and desperate blooms.
They soon outgrew their sheltered space.
So came the day of moving.
They panicked then,
but had to leave the safety of the known.
Some found homes in larger pots
Some in sunlit gardens.
But those stems they had
were too long, too thin.
They had placed their hope
in a few flowers and no roots.
The summer heat roasted the weakest plans,
And rabbits ate up the rest.
In two short days the winter promise
died in the blistering summer
Only the potted forget-me-nots held on.
With large leaves and no blooms
they resisted the urge to grow fast and flashy.
They stayed close to the ground,
held onto their leaves,
devoted to permanence once established,
they clung to life.
After the devastations of the summer,
they fled the unknown hazards.
Safe at home once more,
and growing bit by bit.
Nourished so carefully,
they survived too anxious attentions
And some serious neglect.
They were forgotten at Christmas
And most died,
Bitter they had not grown fast enough.
In the frozen waste of January only one survived.
When large summer leaves died back
this plant sent new leaves.
New hopes for life and growth.
Small it was, small as the seedling a year before.
But it clung on.
Drinking in the water
Tolerating all the cold.
Month by month
Leaves grew out,
and died back.
Beaten back by elements,
no longer did it try to attack the sky,
it survived by delaying lofty goals
Saving them in memory
Until the conditions were right.
But the conditions didn’t come.
The leaves grew slower then they died.
The plant withered.
Spring came breaking back,
Fighting through the late season snow.
The world began to green again,
but the flower had forgot.
It forgot the dream of sunshine and light
Of flowers bursting into life
Without the dream
the last green leaves lost their way
and so faded…
Back to the dust…
nothing but an empty pot.
…
But I remember,
the promise of a winter night,
of future sundry summers.
And I will not forget
the lofty dreams the seedlings lost,
and my errors as a gardener here.
I failed to fix a broken heart
and raise a healthy plant that knew
the hope it held within.
I will plant another seed
And water, soil, seed,
Heat and heart.
Will send shoots into the sky
And one day,
flowers will appear.
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