Today's poem came to me on the bus, was largely written on the bus, because it took hold of me ... and wouldn't let go.
Over time, I became aware of that particular window, that struggling plant. It got so I was watching for that cracked window each day when my bus went climbing back up the hill on the way home.
I kept expecting to see someone at the window, watering the plant, turning it in the sunlight, or simply looking out at the passing traffic. But I never did.
Still, the plant hung on, seemed to be growing, leafing out slightly, and I kept wondering who lived there with it ... "what small measures of encouragement" they shared.
The poem, originally published in the literary journal, Poem, and now part of a manuscript in search of a publisher:
WHO LIVES THERE?
In an upstairs window,
below a sagging
gutter, beside siding
wind-peeled and flapping,
beneath a window shade
water-stained and torn,
behind a pane cracked
diagonally like a fragile
promise, sits a spindly
plant taking what sun
it can on a winter day,
while my bus struggles
in its uphill climb
toward a daily nagging
question: Who lives
there with this plant,
and what small measures
of encouragement do they
have to bridge the days?
© 2006
Today's word: encouragement
1 comment:
Beautiful! The painting reminds me of Queen Anne's Lace with it's delicacy and lovely creamy color.
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