Tags
dandelions, delinquency, mean old neighbor lady, promethean notions, revenge, truancy, wicked boys, wicked girls
By Smaktakula
DANDELIONS
When the vinegary old lady
who lives next door
shakes her cane at you and hollers
that nasty children mustn’t run through her yard
because of her beautiful flowers
which you’ll ruin with your horsey feet,
run away far and fast
leaving only the ghost of your laughter as an echo.
Much later,
when the bent and lonely old lady next door
has shuffled into her home to watch her stories on the television
and not to be bothered with her garden
until the sun has warmed the earth again,
gather dandelions from a secret space
and place them in a bucket
until it churns and brims with dandelion cumulus,
and then secretly, quietly
so that the stories she watches are louder than your silent feet,
creep back to the old woman’s yard
and into her beautiful garden.
Then hurl the bucket,
let fly the froth and foam
so that wisps hang in the late April air
like a February snowfall,
and then plummet in their thousands
upon the dark, rich accepting soil
of the mean old neighbor lady’s garden
for good luck.