ANNUAL

“I know they will die,
the dahlias, the zinnias,
the petunias, the geraniums,
will die come autumn,
and still I buy them, still
plant them and sing to them
as I do. Looking up
from the garden beds, trowel
in hand, I see it in everything…
the spruce, the ants, the swallows,
this hand…all that lives will die.
And staring at the basil, pungent
And green and ephemeral, I feel
so darn lucky to unfold
for whatever time I’m given.
To bloom while I can. To be marigold.
Calendula. Mother. Begonia. Gratefulness
Floods me like low summer sun.
I turn my face toward that light.”

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, poet

The poem reminded me of this verse: “Because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you.” (1 Peter 1:23-25)

“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.” Jesus