Garden Gnome

Songbirds performed as I waded through thyme

under the hoya that scaled my windows.

Morphos danced along with a small wind chime

as peace lilies drank from the garden hose.

While tending to weeds before winter’s kiss,

I was visited by the alchemist.

Accept this gift for sustaining such bliss!

He vested me a chunk of amethyst.

I quickly found his gift fades in sunlight

and fractures under ultraviolet heat.

So I buried it far from the sun’s bite,

around the clover roots beneath my feet.

And by next year’s Beltane – what do you know –

jagged purple petals started to grow.