how does your garden grow?
Pull up some radishes for dinner,
my mother said.
They grow next to the house under your bedroom window.
Afraid I’d pull up something other than a radish
I gathered a sister, a brother
and we knelt in the dirt
under the screened window
looking
at what we thought
to be a radish.
Its leaves so new so green
our hands so hesitant so unsure
we reached and pulled
earth clung
to our fingers
to the fleshy roots
quivering in the sun
we pulled up radish after radish
handing them
a bouquet
to our mother.
She no longer cares for radishes.
My sister, brother and I tend our own gardens.
But I wish everyday
to kneel again
under that window
to feel new and green
hesitant and unsure.
“Radishes” by Susan B. Auld
art by watercolor artist, Mary Lou Peters
http://www.maryloupeters.com
life: acoustic & amplified 