One potted plant perched here; and there, a fern hung;
and by the bed, one skinny rose.  Tenant bathes
in lavender oil, feels mundane regardless, feels little,

thinks nothing.  Later she will cause herself to rise,
commanding apathetic muscles to take up boxes
of things never alive and, to her, meaningless,

close her eyes and remember soil wet and moving
on her hands.  In truth she should not be, was never meant
to be a croon--a simple prole--but this is what

she is today, and this is what she does
today, and if it were still yesterday,
the gardener'd be finger-deep in speckled dirt

and water and pots and all things colorful and living
most of all.  But her boxes make her money and her
boxes are her duty and her duty is her labor and

her labor is her strife.  Her meaning lies in what she does
today, and if it were still yesterday, the gardener'd
be finger-deep in speckled earth and oily mirth,

and spirit-filled with joyous song, and working
every moment, and gut awash with overwhelming
fantasy-belief that her work might be immortal,

but her meaning lies in what she does today, and
if it were still yesterday, she may as well not be a human,
for none can be so unyielding to the authority of time

or else a hypocrite.