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Location: Connecticut, United States

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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

This Man


Planting the pansies
He is library quiet
The curve of his back
Bent in supplication
To the delicate petals
And tender leaves.

Rough man hands
are gentle tools
that cradle infant roots
and sprinkle soil
like fairy dust.

The pansies
Chubby-cheeked
Flush with color
Are lifted away from
The crowded box.

Are they fearful now?
Will their tiny souls wilt?
How will he comfort them?

Their small perfect beds
Are prepared and ready.
He covers them with soil
A drink before bed then
Tucks them in.

In the morning
The same hands hang
Below the suit jacket
Clutching keys a phone
A newspaper

I watch from the window
Busy day, must hurry
Late for work.
His long, quick strides.

As he walks to the car
I see him stop.
His back bends
Once again to touch
The soulful face
Of one flower.

I love this man.

12 Comments:

Blogger Echrai said...

Wow. Beautiful. A complete window into what you see.

11:15 AM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Thanks echrai...once in a while I see a poem in my real life and try to capture it.

11:33 AM  
Blogger Irina Tsukerman said...

That's so pretty... and it even *sounds* delicate, like the flowers!

12:06 PM  
Blogger Spurious Nurse said...

Oh! This is pretty!

12:26 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Pansies remind me of puppy faces. Very poetic MB!

3:07 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Thanks Irina, Plum and Laurenbove -feeling poetic I guess.

LB - where's your post today - I so look forward to reading you!

3:12 PM  
Blogger Susie said...

DAMN, MB. I love him, too! He totally got some when he got home, didn't he? Or did you call him back in the house right then?

9:01 PM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Summer...I adore pansies and see real faces with eyes and cheeks in their petals...glad you liked that line, I did too.

Susie...I wanted to...but hell a man's got to do what a man's got to do and in my house that means - get to work, dammit.

11:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

really pretty! classic imagery! you are talented! liked your other posts too.. hey, visit mine sometime - anthony.i.ph, later!

11:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is beautiful. What feeling and love that went into that...you can feel it when you read it.

lawbrat

9:03 AM  
Blogger Susie said...

Seriously, that is a truly beautiful poem. I can feel it. Not unlike the feeling when my husband gently cares for our child.

9:07 AM  
Blogger mary bishop said...

Thank you anthony for your comments - I went to your site but had trouble loading it - must be my antiquated dial up computer (I refuse to give the cable company any more of my money.)

Thanks lawbrat and Susie...today I would write a different poem...maybe not so sweet..but yesterday that poem wrote itself.

9:28 AM  

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