Amy Gerstler: In Perpetual Spring

In Perpetual Spring

BY AMY GERSTLER

Hibiscus by Marcia Verleta

Gardens are also good places

to sulk. You pass beds of

spiky voodoo lilies

and trip over the roots

of a sweet gum tree,

in search of medieval

plants whose leaves,

when they drop off

turn into birds

if they fall on land,

and colored carp if they

plop into water.

Royal poinciana by Marcia Verleta

Suddenly the archetypal

human desire for peace

with every other species

wells up in you. The lion

and the lamb cuddling up. 

The snake and the snail, kissing.

Even the prick of the thistle,

queen of the weeds, revives

your secret belief

in perpetual spring,

your faith that for every hurt

there is a leaf to cure it.

by Marcia Verleta