Gladrackets

for the fig tree in the yard that didn't make it and for the one that did

Thank you the wheelbarrow with its slow rust its basin holding last week's rain and a leaf and the leaf not rotting yet

Thank you the trowel I left out all winter how the handle cracked but held how the soil forgave it when I pushed it in

Thank you the compost bin with its sweet rot its kitchen bones and coffee grounds its warm breath when I lift the lid like something alive in there because there is

Thank you the neighbour's kid who rode his bike across my seedlings and said sorry with a face so honest I almost thanked him too so I did

Thank you the clay pot that broke in March its clean crack its two halves one holding a dead root one holding nothing both still useful

Thank you the bee that landed on my wrist not stinging just resting its legs dusted yellow as if it had been somewhere important it had

Thank you the rain that came too late and the rain that came too early and the rain that came exactly right which is most rain which I have learned not to say

Thank you the fence post that leans it has been leaning for years it will lean for more years it is not falling it is tilting toward something

Thank you the soil that takes everything in the peels the stems the deadheads the loss and doesn't call it loss calls it next

Thank you the fig that didn't ripen its hard green fist on the branch all summer I watched it and waited and it stayed and that was its offering: to stay

Thank you the spider on the watering can who rebuilt every morning what I knocked down every evening without complaint without stopping

Thank you the woman at the garden centre who said these ones like sun and those ones like shade as if the plants had opinions they do

Thank you my hands in the dirt the dirt under the nails the nails that will be clean by Monday but for now are wearing the garden like a coat

Thank you the friend who is gone whose hat I found on the hook by the door where he left it the door he walked through every morning the hook that held his hat every evening thank you the hat thank you the hook thank you the door that held them before me

Thank you the garden that doesn't know what it's doing just does it just puts out leaf after leaf after leaf