midwinter in the piedmont
Groundhog Day has just passed,
outside, freezing cold keeps coming for a visit,
while inside, our ficus, ferns, Christmas cactus, and cyclamen,
leaf and flower as best they can,
outside the first crocus and daffodils
color a challenge at the pervasive gray,
as does the red shout of the flowering quince,
spring peepers sing with gusto below us,
I have visions of tomatoes and tomatillos a season away,
so I plant my seeds in potting soil,
place them above a heat source,
encase them in an aluminum foiled tent,
I imagine those little dried seeds
swelling up into burgeoning life,
soon to start doubling and redoubling,
a process that in four months or so
can find me in the garden
plucking tomatoes from the vine,
and celebrating what the Earth can give us
if we let ourselves dance the dance
the world of the plants can whirl with us.
A few days pass and the tomato and tomatillo plants are up!
by Henry H. Walker
February 7, then February 11, ‘17
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