Graduation

May 31, 1978

It was one extraordinary day! Yes – one.

To be in the spotlight

cast by the spring sun. All that starshine.

Chest achingly tender

in receiving the bouquets so flamboyant

– so spiky.

Coldhouse nurturing; growth in shadows,

in the midst of oh, those "amazing" narcissi!

The prickin' clippin' cultivation.

Soil repeatedly tilled

upside down.

Roots harassed.

 

Twisting, double binding,

bogus watering

for the withering effect. Aided by a bunch of toxic fertilizers.

(Pesticides used not to pests but to pester.)

Hardening off successfully accomplished!

The ones who emerge through these garden gates,

vision blurred by years of staring into dirt,

go sideways, byways

on and on...

alone,

along the orbit.

Yet look at the resilience

of some of those buds.

Surviving, growing,

blooming all the way to baccalaureate with honors

and beyond.

To withstand and stand one's ground,

never ceasing to reach for the three blooms

of the essence –

yes,

those that I'd once drawn on my nursery walls:

Truth. Beauty. Love.

They received me.

🌹🌹🌹

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