How to Build a Garden
Use the tools your father handed you – patience to sit and pause to note which way the winds blow, where shadows fall and how the rain can be captured. Plant your fingers over his prints on the trowel, construct a wall, send it curling towards the wicket gate that unfurls into fields where the horses graze. Lay a wandering path, fashion beds, heel in exotic plants and vegetables; set them randomly, avoiding regimental lines. When they bloom hold up the strange fruits to the sky and imagine clouds checked in flight raising eyebrows in awe, as though they're seeing you for the first time, moving on through changing seasons.
Valerie Morton
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