Can It Be This Simple?

I wrote this at least two years ago, I think. Sadly, the situation in the Middle East has not changed much. The poem was inspired by a news story about an elderly woman planting olive trees even though war raged in her homeland and she probably would not live to see the trees bear fruit.

With my son Derek back in the war zone, the poem has much more meaning to me.

SIMPLICITY

Come, child
let us plant a garden
drop our seeds in soil
though all the earth be crazed
with fear and war
We plant
as do old Iraqi women
cleaning ruin of mortar shells
from olive groves
to find new growth
in old dust

We plant
as did our neighbor
who at ninety-three
planted a lilac bush
that would not bloom
for seven years
Come, child
do not listen to news
of mayhem and destruction
drop your seeds carefully
watch with me
for tender shoots
of peace