“I once had a garden
filled with flowers
that only grew on dark thoughts
but they need constant attention
& one day I decided
I had better things
to do.”
When I die, she said, I’m coming
back as a tree with deep roots &
I’ll wave my leaves at the children
every morning on their way to school & whisper tree songs
at night in their dreams .
Trees with deep roots
know about the things children need.
The plumber was digging
around in the pipes & he saw something
shine in the muck & it turned
out to be the soul of the last tenant.
he gave it to me & I said I
wonder how we can return it &
he shrugged & said he found
stuff like that all the time.
“You’d be amazed what people lose”
he said.
He wrote secret notes to
people he hadn’t met yet.
some of them aren’t even
born, he said, but we live in a strange
neighborhood & they will need help
figuring things out &
I won’t always be around
to explain it to them.
