Winter's Duties

Chased from the garden, wind biting

The season's change unexpected 

Dormant perennials resting

Winter sunshine is soft to the eye

Promises of spring to succor

Beckoning by cloudless blue sky 

Soil to prepare, no easy sod 

Holes to dig wielding mattock and shovel 

Thin soil tops layers of thirsty clay clod

The smaller garden lays fallow 

Fruit trees fan out to provide shade 

A quiet space, sparse and hallow

Blackberry hedge, verdant running  

Uncrowded roots relish rich soil

Enlarged space succulent spreading

Soil easily tilled hides hardpan

Mattock breaks brittle compacted

Clay, to mold with ashes and sand

A windbreak of branches and limbs 

Gales unrelenting, bring havoc 

Shredded plants appear sparse and grim

Summer growth is coaxed and nurtured

Birds feast on pesky grasshoppers

By vociferous swarm perturbed 

I will build dwellings for their nests  

Will provide water for their drink 

They keep at bay the garden pests 

Up at dawn, simple existence

Songbirds to awaken the day 

The eastern sky in pastel tints