Don’t Look Back

by Kay Ryan

This is not
a problem
for the neckless.
Fish cannot
recklessly
swivel their heads
to check
on their fry;
no one expects
this. They are
torpedoes of
disinterest,
compact capsules
that rely
on the odds
for survival,
unfollowed by
the exact and modest
number of goslings
the S-necked
goose is—
who if she
looks back
acknowledges losses
and if she does not
also loses.


Yard-wise

This weekend, Sunday actually, I was up early and got started building a raised bed on the patio. Dave and I had talked about doing it and I didn't want to leave it until it got too hot, so I just went outside and started hauling around the pavers and laying it out. When it was done I swept the patio. Dave came out and we hauled soil to fill the raised bed. After that, we did some garden-y stuff, weeding and watering and picture taking. Dave planted the Brandywine tomato next to the other tomatoes. We dragged the potted cottonwood trees back onto the patio from their home near the big house (where they took shelter while the patio wall was being built and the casita being stucco'd). Then it was time to have some lunch (Blake's itsa burger and fries for me, and a breakfast burrito for Dave) and go to the home and garden center and buy some things (trellises for the silvery and trumpet vines to grow up onto, trellis holders, and pots, always more pots).  We came home and put the trellises up. Then it was too hot to do anything, so I went in and had a nap.

In the late afternoon, we had some tomato and cheese sandwiches as a late lunch and then got started planting. At AGRA the day before, we had picked up several plants, coleus and lots of herb-y things for the raised bed, and catnip and grass seeds and strawberries and so on. All those had to go in somewhere. Dave also potted some ginger root and tumeric from the grocery store to see if they'll pan out.  Then we put some new stuff in the garden (salad Burnet, perennial arugula, borage, collard greens, micro greens, mesclun lettuce mix, beets for greens) and picked caterpillars and cabbage moth eggs off the broccoli.  When we were done, we sat for awhile on the patio and just enjoyed all our little potted darlings.

Garden-wise, most things are doing okay. The mache we planted didn't pan out, so I think we'll stick something else in there. Maybe peppers? Maybe eggplant? (Though apparently no one around here likes it but me.)  The Thai eggplant and shiso and ground cherries also haven't panned out from seed. Oh, well. The verdolagas have though, which is nice. We'll eat those when they grow up a little more, although I read online about a restaurant serving them as microgreens in a salad and now I'm tempted to grow them as microgreens. (They're a lot of work for that purpose though, I think!)

This morning it looks like a storm is rolling in. It's windy and the air smells like rain. I'll water the little seedlings in a bit to keep the wind from drying them out too much.