Rocky Garden (My First Poem in Decades)

Rocky Garden

First saw a 12 year old girl

Working on her large garden by herself

Six to eight hours a day

Moving heavy rocks to build up her garden

Mother shouts to her father to come, please help her

He works beside her for a few hours

That summer was a drought

Her garden burns in the heat

Next year, at age 13

She builds up her garden further

Having bags of topsoil and gravel delivered

Enlarging her already large garden

Separating her vegetables by a wall of stone

Proudly sharing her vegetables with her family

Father does not help her

This year at age 14

My, how she has grown!

She looks like her mother

Still working alone

She builds a chicken wire fence around her garden, complete with a door

To defend against the neighborhood deer and rabbits

She builds another garden by the side of the house

To provide her mother with herbs

And another, on the other side of the house

In partial shade, for shade-loving vegetables

Another girl next door builds a large garden

Following her example

And an art student sketches their gardens

Savoring the idea of smelling and eating 

Their vegetables

Healing her broken heart