ILLUSTRATION BY LINDA COOK DEVONA
Last year I dug a pond—
Heaved up roots, old wire and pots,
Smoothed the deep ground, lined it,
Let water flood its hold like liquid glass.
Your family gave you the lily for Christmas;
All Winter it slept in the water,
Through the fierce blue days of January,
When ice grew thick as a doorstep there
And it seemed it would be Winter for eternity.
But the year flowed slowly in time,
Melted into the first blossom of Spring.
We had forgotten all about the lily until,
One day it opened its heart in the middle of the sun
Like a princess, and we marvelled, laughed, came close
In wonderment as if some baby star
Had crashed into our grass and stayed alight.
For four whole days we were like our own children
And the lily was the center of the world.
