POETRY

Couplet: In Our Garden, In the East

By Sofia Tietze
A footprint of grey, dry, cracked earth stands in sharp relief against surrounding grey, dry, cracked earth.
(Image courtesy of jorgencarling via Morguefile)

(Editor’s note: As a pair, these poems explore a tenuous relationship through garden imagery.)
. . .
In Our Garden

Father razed our treehouse.
And the barn filled with spider webs.
The manure pile (perfumed flower food)
Produced climbing shoots.
One by one, friends sank down,
Swallowed by indifferent earth,
Turned into complacent dirt
That blackens hands and feet.
This soil, our shared identity—
Torn by trowel and hoe and spade
Cleaving “we” into
You and me, separating one root-set
Into two entities—
Here, we’ll cultivate our garden.

In the East

We weed our garden
With calloused hands;
Digging in dirt that
Has often drunk
Blood.

Silent sometimes,
Or with biting words
We beg our plants
To grow, and curse when
They don’t.

The raspberries
Strangle each other—
At my rebuke,
They bite. You weep and
My teeth gnash.		The corn turns pale
From lack of water;
The fig tree bears
Bad fruit. Who will cut
It down? You? Me?

If I throw my
Shovel to the earth
Would you cast away
Your hoe, and amble
Out the garden gate?

I look to the sky,
And plead with him,
Lips chapped, eyes scorched,
“Lord, please send us
Rain.”
MORE
/ POETRY
Sofia Tietze

Sofia Tietze

United States of America

Sofia Tietze loves the written word. She’s passionate about reading, writing, and editing the works of others. She received a bachelor’s degree in English (with an emphasis in creative writing) and a minor in professional writing from UC Davis and currently works by day as a medical editor. By night, she’s writing down her debut novel and whatever poem happens to possess her. On weekends, you can find her riding her pony in the Sierra Nevada or biking through Sacramento in search of new coffee shops and thrift stores.

Editorial Acknowledgments

Thank you to Yosef Baskin for their inspired edits on the piece.

READ MORE

Comments

Be the first to share your thoughts!

We value diverse perspectives and respectful debate.