Wintry Bench – original watercolor by Jane Banzhaf

Guerney
Burpee
oversized catalogs sporting lush vermilion Beefsteak tomatoes on the cover
wonders in newsprint on whose pages I find 
Garden of Eden
handprint of
God

Abandoning breakfast dishes
allowing children to scatter willy-nilly into mischief
I sit down at my sturdy oaken table
     smooth catalog pages a bit flatter over worn golden surface
bend close to discern
sheen of fruit
curl of leaf

In the space of a breath –

Just outside my kitchen window
     akin to resurrection!
brave seedlings peek from winter-tilled soil
     bold radish, feathery carrot tops
     lettuce, beets, spinach
couched and coddled in tenderly prepared beds
bright red Swiss chard piercing
late March snow

April rainbow splashes heavenly promise across damp sky
     breezily intoxicated with scent of apple blossoms
snap peas climb skyward in dizzying profusion – Up! Up!
tendrils twining trellis with iron grip
fat, sugary pods dripping down in May
perfect for sunny midmorning snacks
bite-size for childish fingers

Mid-June and all manner of squash –
     zucchini and acorn and hubbard
gambol across mulch carefully pulled up to their knees
elbow exuberantly into staid peppers
flaunt exotic orange blossoms
freely shade roots of
runner beans

Elegant English cucumbers – always burpless!
set slim viridian fruit ‘neath modest vines
     drink thirstily in burgeoning heat
     crisply grace my salad bowl
Silver Queen cornstalks reach knee-high by Fourth of July
silky tassels promise fat amber kernels in August
bursting with sweetness

And the light begins to change

Burnished sunbeams gentle a glorious autumn
cherry tomatoes lavishly proffer final crimson gift – 
     high summer distilled into miniature wine skins
knobby winter squash blush ruddy through crumbling vines
shabby now
the garden
settles
into
rest

A wintery blast shakes the eaves
I stir in my chair, lay down my pencil, look up from 
     order forms
     garden maps and lists
     catalog pages with bent corners and circled favorites
to see my children gathered ‘round me with hungry eyes

Noon already!

Smiling, I draw my seedlings closer
tuck sweaters more closely about their small bodies
against bitter January chill fingering through unseen cracks
hold out precious catalogs laden with summer
as if holding out food and drink
and say to them –

“See, my little ones?
It’s a miracle!
’Twill not always be winter.
In a breath – and I have it on the best Authority –
     the Word of The Gardener –
Spring is coming!”

**Visit my other website – RuachArt.com – where I share my adventures in watercolor.

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy,
the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity