Garden Table Blessing

At the Garden Table

It is easy to bless the tomatoes

ripening on the vine

bite-size, grape-like

and ready to burst open

in my mouth

Communion



It’s easy to bless the basil

that wafts poetic at every picking

and brush against the water can.

Collard greens

with rainbow stems, easy

potatoes, brown eyes planted

as a science experiment

sprouted purple-white blossoms

with surprising yellow centers

who knew such a lumpy

bumpy mass of starch

would be one and the same

with these delicate stem-y appendages.

 

It is easy to bless all

in this little garden corner:

the maiden hair fern

operatic hibiscus

Mondo grass and morning robins

a concrete Buddha

accompanied by a ceramic, moss-covered rabbit

wind chimes and hummingbirds

even the invading blackberries

challenging the ivy

for ownership of the hillside



What about blessing the old patio furniture

that survived 15 years and 5 moves

or the Terracotta mask

purchased after a year of sobriety

spider webs, neighbors cat droppings

what about the Citronella candle

that chases away mosquitoes

What about the mosquitoes?

Bless the mosquitoes and begin.