Poetry Thursday: Ben Franklin was a gardener

You can change your hair
you can change your clothes

You can even change
a lightbulb
with or without the help
of one voyeur
two economists
or three Episcopalians

But you cannot make change
any more than you can
will the sun
into rising
or yell a rose
into blooming

Change happens
when it happens
and not a second sooner

But
(and I did say “but”)

You can
turn the right rows
and seed the right beds
and water
and weed
and otherwise tend
as needed
every day of every season
every month of every year
for the rest of your life

And if you start now—
if you change right now—
you may not have flowers
or novels
or bridges
or babies
tomorrow
but you will have the joy
that being a handmaiden
brings with it
for every second
of every minute
of every hour
of the rest of your days

And the world might well
enjoy the fruits of your garden
until the end of days
themselves.

xxx
c

Image by dumbledad via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

Tagged as: change, Poetry Thursday

Posted in: The Personal Ones