Author’s Note: This poem is a rather straight forward account of early spring gardening, the tension between what is “good” and “bad” (slugs, weeds), and the sometimes endlessness of the tasks, resulting in a retreat from that burden only to come inside and find nature has made its way in with the ants which are seemingly impossible creatures to get rid of.
Day Before Easter
I pull the weeds, one
after another and another
as Sisyphus might
Why shouldn’t the weeds live, too?
Such fortitude and strange beauty.
Two eagles circle above. No crows
are pestering them. Tell the rabbits
to beware. Don’t the slugs deserve
to slither among the damp leaves,
leaving their eerie trails?
Sometimes I cut, sometimes I fling.
It’s messy.
No wonder we need sleep.
I moved some tiny ferns down
to the bottom of the yard. I
can only hope they flourish
in the shade of the hawthorn.
A cold rain begins and I
retreat. That’s enough nature.
I watch from the window—rain,
birds, bowing trees and look,
down at the baseboard, churning,
the ants are back, the damn ants.
♦
Mercedes Lawry’s most recent book is Vestiges, from Kelsay Books. She has published three chapbooks and poems in other journals, including Nimrod and Alaska Quarterly Review. Her book Small Measures is forthcoming from ELJ Editions, Ltd., in 2024. Her work has been nominated seven times for a Pushcart Prize. She has also published short stories and poems for children. Lawry lives in Seattle, Washington.
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