Whirling Words

Rosella Farrell 

1905-1996

your spade and hoe hang rusty in the shed

and dusty weeds cover the ground

where once upon a time your garden grew

when I remember I picture you

there where the long row of marigolds wound

around the cabbage and cucumber beds

their blossoms orange and tawny

summoning the butterflies and bees

to taste and then tarry

for the blooms of beans and peas

work is but another way to pray

a saint named Francis once declared

and reverently you delved and sowed

weeded watered pruned and hoed

your chapel in the open air

from apple flower time in May

and just as seedlings seek the sun

and faith invokes the deed

you gleaned your food and meaning from

the earth and sweat and need

but falls faltering energy

cannot maintain a summer rhyme

and effort grounded planting lore

will not sustain a metaphor

so seasons wane and dusty weeds

cover the once upon a time

where onions beets and carrots grew

and still

your garden misses you