New Garden

I suggest to you, let us stop placing this stone
at each other’s feet or before our own.
Let’s push it aside to open a door
to a healthier place we’ve been longing for.

There’s a Japanese garden
growing in my mind.
Creativity and necessitycaused it to be designed.
I took the boulderthat’s been on my shoulder
the one we’ve been pushing all these years,
which has caused such anguish and tears.
Yeah, so I took that rock and set itnext to a tiny pool
dreamed up a trickling stream
and some flowers on the rim.
Pink ones for the heart,
violet for the soul,
expressing spirituality
which helps to make us whole.

The rock is yet to be transformed.
It still weighs upon my shoulder,
brought from another lifetime
and we keep getting older.
We’ve been rolling it back and forth
weighing each other down,
caught in the silence of speechlessness
leading each other to frown.
Now I’ll add some rays of the sun,
to make us feel warm and alive.
Then this masterpiece will be done
which will help us again to thrive.

Come sit with me on this smooth boulder,
lean up against my lightened shoulder.
Take a moment to bathe in the sun,
soon enough there’s more work to be done.