Nothing Planned

Nothing Planned

She nagged
for the backyard to be divided.
Neat shrubs, petite blooms,
lush creeper trellised and clipped—
distance between the mutant
carbuncle on the other side.

On polar-mood days mayhem
prevailed over the contrived.
Grief was lost in wild confusion
amongst weeds and growth wrecking
the sky. Everything removed
from regulation kept her from dying.

She sat on a blistered bench shelling peas,
beneath a bougainvillea, pink flowers
dangling like shrimp from fishing line.
Chook pens bragged idyllic with feather
tickets stuck on sagging wire, silver tracks
left by snails all slowed irritation.

Concerns rode rusty bicycle parts
amongst statice clumps and thistles.
A misshapen apple tree threw stunted
branches over cracked concrete.
Shady patterns created a temple of bonsai,
fragments of herself to change shape.