THE GARDEN

(Dedicated to Faye Scantland, Healthcare Worker)

(Thank you Faye, for caring for and loving our parents)

THE GARDEN – IT IS NOT NOW AS IT WAS ONCE

That Garden--so dear through bygone months--

It is not now as It was once.

Frost stole away Its sweetest scent--

Consumed Its beauty and left It spent.

The garden whose blooms gently drew us near

Now laments in solitaire and weeps a tear

A tear for fruit now dead, and perfume now null

A tear for leaf now brittle, and color now dull.

Earth’s Fragrance is now very tired and weak

The barren garden lies stark and bleak

As dormancy lethargically surrounds its base

For solace to the Heavens Garden lifts its face

Then God takes of Exhausted Garden Its measure:

And declares good its very Essence of

        Beauty, Sustenance, Pleasure.

And although Garden sighs at loss of its Beauty so deep

God whispers to Garden,

     “You are not dead, just merely asleep.”

November, 2013

Joan Binkley

(FROM CONVERSATION WITH FAYE SCANTLAND (DAD AND MOM'S CARETAKER))

copyright by Joan Binkley 2013