Happy Poetry Friday! I'm joining the #PoetryPals this month with a poem that includes a box. Mine holds seeds I collected over late summer and fall. Today was that one bright winter day mentioned in the poem, so I planted some little greenhouses, hoping to give the seeds a head start. The containers you see in the photo include everything listed in the poem and more. Now I'm crossing my fingers that we'll see lots of healthy sprouts in spring.
In case the poem above is hard to read, here it is again:
Jump-Starting Spring
I squirrel away autumn's treasures
in junk mail return envelopes
in a plastic spinach box in the cold garage:
turtleheads, touch-me-nots, penstemon,
columbine, cup plants, coneflowers (purple and prairie),
milkweed (common, swamp, and whorled).
One bright winter day,
at our picnic table-turned-lab bench,
I slice empty milk jugs to hinge open like hope chests,
pour in soil, plant seeds, sprinkle water,
add labels on stakes,
close and fasten,
and mark the outsides for good measure.
With groundless optimism,
I line up the jugs in the snow,
counting on nature and miracles.
© 2022 JoAnn Early Macken
Patricia Franz is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup on her Reverie blog. Enjoy!
