City Seeds

A Poem

City Seeds (2024)

Blood painted concrete. A city landscape, 
overgrown, unruly with violence. 
Families surrendered belonging.
Felt the rhythm of the city, and fled 
shaking.     A sunflower blooms and turns,
     unintentionally feeds a family of birds.
     The Farmer hums a tune, working, 
     waiting, collecting wayward seeds.
Rediscovered roots, in rural land. Happy 
in a state of growth, a homestead in North Georgia, 
learning the difference, between sprout and sapling. 

Frost arrests the field. Crops yield.
They bring home something new.
Seasons are cycles to which mankind 
is bound. The city reaches, but they keep out 
of touch. Home is where her heart is 
Safe. Perennial spirits return to growth,
with twice the branches, flowers then fruit.

One year later, the home's steady.
They name the crows on the fence.
This murder, a blessing. Astonishing 
all, avoiding drought. Oh the miracle 
of timely rain. They know what it is now, 
to smell of earth, to sense a storm coming.
There is wonder in the water, no? Grow 
or wilt. 

Families of birds are fed each morning. 
The smell of fresh hay. Again a harvest, 
once more a frost. The thrum of the cycle.
New life, all around, surrounding.
Flowers thriving—vs. dying, 
Lying atop a casket.

An old rooster crows,
Good Mourning.