Wild Sweet Peas

Wild Sweet Peas

Wild Sweet Peas


Growing in tangled thickets 
all along the edges

you do not beg for water from the hose,
making due with the scant moisture 
you find hidden within the earth
or with nothing at all
until your pods turn the color 
of a golden August day,
dried and cracked open
after months of waiting,
sending your seeds 
out onto the patient ground, 
in preparation for the next year’s
free and ravelled arrangement

I remember you, your sweet scent 
in summer sunlight
when I was no taller 
than you tallest tendril 
and I recall your tenacious vines 
that wound through roadside ditches, 
across forgotten fields
and snuck quietly, left alone 
behind abandoned homes

Few care for you on purpose
but you don’t mind
you carry on with the
deep driven melody of summer, 
season after season
first bloom after last bloom
childhood after childhood
asking nothing, offering everything
to whomever passes by

even after all these years of my absence
you thrive here,
behind this home in the woods 
I’ve loved for so long,
but no longer live in

this home of so many past selves, 
all of them younger, all of them still with me,
all of them still crawling over and through you, 
and your reaching, twisting, curious vines. 

And I know you still
by the vision of your wild pink and white perennials
growing verdant in the places so few people 
take time to notice

I see you here today.
I know you old friend,
and I haven’t forgotten about you
and I will keep you with me as I leave, 
to travel so very far from home,

Growing in tangled thickets 
all along the edges

 

 

What did you connect with in this poem? What flowers or plants do you most connect with?
Share your thoughts in the comment section below or send me an email with artwork, poetry, photos, etc at wes@livethecuriouslife.com

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