Her Garden

Donald Hall

               I let her garden go. 

                            let it go, let it go 

        How can I watch the hummingbird 

                    Hover to sip 

                    With its beak's tip 

 The purple bee balm -- whirring as we heard 

                    It years ago?

               The weeds rise rank and thick 

                            let it go, let it go

        Where annuals grew and burdock grows. 

                    Where standing she 

                    At once could see 

 The peony, the lily, and the rose 

                    Rise over brick 

               She'd laid in patterns. Moss 

                            let it go, let it go

        Turns the bricks green, softening them 

                    By the gray rocks 

                    Where hollyhocks 

 That lofted while she lived, stem by tall stem, 

                    Dwindle in loss.