Creating Eden

The brown marmoset
stink bug rests
upon my deck
rigid in anticipation
as I
sweep him into
a pail of
soapy water

I could of course
crush him
squeeze out the
very juice of him
but

they aren’t called
stink bugs by
accident

tending a garden
isn’t easy

but when the monarch
sits against a
puddle of water
and the finches
munch on echinacea
seeds and the toad
scurries beneath the
fallen leaves
oh my heaven
she is beautiful

Fall 2021