My Friend's Divorce

I want her
To dig up
every plant
in her garden,
the pansies, the penta,
roses, ranunculas,
thyme and the lilies,
the thing
nobody knows the name of,
unwind the morning glories
from the wire windows
of the fence,
take the blooming
and the almost-blooming
and the dormant,
especially the dormant,
and then
and then
plant them in her new yard
on the other side
of town
and see how
they breathe!

Naomi Shibab Nye, Clackamas Literary Review and Clackamas.cc.or.us/clr and webdesol.com/CLR, copyright 2001-2002 Clackamas Community College