DIGGING UP DIRT
Virginia Salter

digging up dirt
takin’ out grass
and weeds that grow
tillin’ it well
makin’ weed free
my rich and sandy soil

diggin’ it deep
siftin’ it through
removin’ undesirables
so it’ll be true

sinkin’ my hands into
the cool earth
to search and destroy
before unwanted gives birth

purgin’ all that’s less than the dream that I hold
yet then I realize that nothin’ would grow
for an increment of time
the length I do not know

I have learned
it just can’t be pure dream,
I’ve gotta take
the curd with the cream

yet be diligent, alert,  
and yes a bit wary
watchin’ for what could come
and overtake the beauty

not acquiesce
nor be apathetic,
so what’s allowed in my realm
is truly copacetic

but plants is plants
and soil is soil

© August 25.  2000