Just this morning they were there, those

self-starters, those

self-sufficient,

self-sustaining

hearty volunteers, greeting

all passersby.

Bachelor Buttons,

Black-eyed Susans,

Queen Anne’s Lace – now gone,

cut away – their

wild, messy

ways replaced with

a tidy green. No human hand

planted, watered,

or tended them

and no human

hand can keep them down.

Still, I mourn.

                                                             JDG