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today i woke oorm a dream of broken guitar strings
moved the lemon mint,
gone tough and smelling like furniture polish
into the sunny spot by the chimney. I ripped up
the creeping charlie, but it always comes back
like green sadness,growing in the rocks, the bricks
I put all the strawberry suckers into the ground,
moved the weedy-looking thyme.
I put two spindly sprouting garlic cloves in the dirt,
and a few carrots that somehow survived the deer
and the snow,. all the old paperbag leaves
i put in the compost, all wet and cold still
and the chives growing wild in the old wooden pail,
i moved them all around the chimney
i wiped the gnome's faces, and set them up again,
found the lone tendril of miraculous oregano,
survivor of spaghetti and snow and deer and
thieving skunk,. curled pale under the creeping charlie,
i set it upright in the sun
tomorrow is beans and peas and filling the frames
tomorrow is cucumbers and pumpkins

today is hands in the dirt,
today is housekeeping,
and the kids on the plastic slide
it is sweeping out the winter
an unasked for kiss, dirty hands

it is enough to live for