Lynette G. Esposito

The Shepherd's Garden

originally published in the Whitman Anthology: Local Gems 2024

It is the safety of the garden that I seek

Where flowers are not condemned to death but

Grow grow with the gardener’s touch of light

Though those who gently sift the soil before the night

Rework soft granules of dark for bulbs to bloom, chant

Grow grow with the gardener’s  touch of light

Because the hope of growth is bright

These frail fingers might have let the feral ground lay waste, yet flowers

Grow grow with the gardener’s touch of light

Though we seek the solace of the sun’s sweet height

Like petals turning toward a higher power in the day, we

Grow grow with the gardener’s touch of light

It is not a funeral’s plot we sight

Astounded by color of so much life from simple clay, we hear the edict

Grow grow with the gardener’s touch of light

And we like stems set on this glorious test of might

Give thanks for celestial tears that quench the needy thirst

For in the safety of the garden, all

Grow grow with the Gardener’s touch of light.

Lynette G. Esposito has been published in Poetry Quarterly, Deep Overstock, North of Oxford, and many anthologies.  She was married to Attilio Esposito and lives in Southern New Jersey.