The Meaning of the Spring Beds Revealed

For backyard gardeners this week is pretty much the holiest time of year. It's when we first get down on our hands and knees and commence removing the straw in order to uncover the beds.  I can't tell just how thrilling it is to catch that first sight of the strawberry shoots and vines unfurling, with the small weeds trembling in their midst.  At the very moment of uncovering this bed, it is already teeming with life, just like a mosh pit, it's impossible to make even the slightest move for fear of trampling on some still pre-nascent leaflet that is not quite ready for daylight.

So here is a new poem I've written in honor of the moment this year's unfurling of the strawberry patch -

There is a deeper meaning

Found in those things embedded

Which is only revealed

To us once we get down

On our hands and knees

To inspect spring's first growth

There in the plush locus

We find the source

Of all our comforts

To be given and received  

In the vines and weeds entwined

And the strawberry leaves

Unfurling in vernal light

Announcing the race

Back to life

Just as well we might 

Disport ourselves one day soon

On the divan or couch

Gradually spreading out 

And ready to proliferate