Distance

January 2010 - written as Part V of a 5 poem cycle. Shared today for Sean.

Some day, after being away,
you wake to find
yourself in a big, open space
and you see then that
there is no green grass.
It is not beneath you
or around you;
It is not
on the other side of some hill
or behind you in better days.
The grass is not greener
anywhere you aren’t.
Here your feet are in a field
of untilled soil,
and the dirt is waiting
for a rake in your hand
and a seed in its gut
to make something of it,
grass or lily, desert or jungle.
Whatever you grow,
whatever you reap.
You step out one day
to find that
there is no green grass.
But, you are a gardener,
by the shape of your hand,
readied with the tools
to create the place you long for,
though it does not exist:
you have not yet grown it.

This one's a little cheesy, I know, but sometimes I need a bit of encouragement--things to remind me to be positive. The thought here is to encourage the idea that "The grass is greener where you water it," and that we all have that ability.

I probably won't name a dedication often, but today, I'm posting this poem for my brother. Love you Sean.