Challenging Poetry

to the world

I planted you a garden
today, my fingers burrowing
through the soil
to find the perfect consistency
for seeds. good seeds.
tomatoes and okra,
cucumbers and pumpkins,
marigolds and daisies
and wildflowers in a great swath
of all your colors. and I
thought of you— of grasslands
that stretch past
the horizon on all sides,
of forests and mountains
and trees so tall
that they dwarf everything,
of the sea and the glaciers
filled with milky ice,
of deserts and the astonishing
shapes of cacti, of molten rock
spewing a river of fire,
of my garden for you—so small,
so very small.
so full of life.