Poem: Closing the Gate

Closing the Gate

I am closing the gate to this garden
Where dreams were sown in good soil and bad.
Whether watchfully tended or foolishly ignored,
Smothered or left thirsty --
In the end, they scattered the same message
Which only now this gardener is willing to hear.

I planted one tree that thrives and grows strong
In spite of a cruel early spring storm;
And another that someone had neglected
I transplanted here and nurtured back to health.
If they are the only success from this garden,
Will that be enough to forgive all my other failures?

I spent most of my life and all of my heart here,
Chasing the dreamworld perfumes promised,
The passion that beckoned in lush blooms,
The devotion pledged by reliable seasons,
The joy of blossoms flouting oncoming frost.

Here, one time and late in my life,
I fell in love, and worshipped that harvest’s moon.
When it waned and there was no union
My heart that once wound easily around
Both smooth and thorny branches
Lost its resiliency and now knows
It will not spring back if bent down by another storm.

So I am closing the gate to this garden.
The seeds of dreams sown here will
Find their way to other beds and blossom there,
Perhaps tended by a gardener

Who listens
And finds her beloved under a different harvest moon.



--meganthemegan 1/25/2007