THE GARDEN SHADE

Down below…
A garden grows
beneath the moon and starlight's glow.
Within a cloudless charcoal sky
Midsummer’s breeze bends leaves nearby.
Collapsed cobwebs and cracked cocoons
create broken domes
Lost in silken ruins.
And then I see the quivering mushrooms
as my garden prepares for impending doom.
For a shady shadow shall soon appear
as the homeless insects
will all scamper in fear.
Black leathery wings, a meter wide
Dive down upon those
with nowhere to hide.
Scooping up their feeble prey
Clutched between their teeth
the dead fly away.

Then an ambient atmosphere echoes around
my midnight garden, now safe and sound.
Folded up flowers continue to shield
their sticky stigma
for tomorrow’s yields.
Earthworms are seen squirming around
Fertilising, breaking down
fallen matter upon soiled ground.
The aromatics of rose and thyme
drift through the air to collide and combine
with the fragrance of lavender
and the passion fruit vine.
While the whispering words of my garden gnome
Come to life, every night
for this gardens’ his home.
Even though I had planted each and every seed
He is the protector of my plants and trees.
Therefore his secret
remains safer with me.

Tired eyes then close
and I drift off to sleep
yet I still have to wonder…
could this all be a dream?

Carey Milton © 2019