Visions in the Backyard

Week 12

Visions in the Backyard

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1.   Empathy, they say, soothes the hurts.

2.   Have you thought the life of a blade of grass? O, the rose
…it gets lots or attention.

3.   What of the lawnmower blade that cuts the blade?

4.   Were it to breathe, it would merely sigh at the question.

5.   How do you feel when you’re seen for who you are?

6.   Never mind that we’re visible; are we seen?

7.   And yes, we must ask, are we seeable?

Blade

I’m leaning sunward slightly,

just doing my job, one of a

million billion blades of grass,

maybe more, in the backyard

of this family. I’m not standing

tall as I was yesterday because the

dad mowed the lawn, as he put it,

and lopped off my top. This afternoon,

though, the young boy in the house is

stretched out on his stomach on us,

looking at our numbers intently. He’s

gliding his palm softly over our chopped

tops. Oh, now he’s pushed back a clump

of us and seems to be taking a special

interest in me. He grabs me between his

thumb and forefinger and yanks me out from my

            root. He places my white base into his mouth,

            sucks on it, rolls it around his tongue; tastes

            something sweet about me. He rolls over

            on his back, closes his eyes,

basks in the warm sun, and keeps my company.

            Then his mother calls him in. He stands,

            lifts me out of his mouth, flips me to the

            ground, and then goes in. In a couple of

days I’ll be dried and withered and

go my way. No matter. I’ve done my job. I ask, not idly,

            would you like to know my supreme joy, having

            reached my full stature, and stood proudly in

            many suns?   Merely this: Having been seen—

            really seen—by this sweet boy.

© 2012 Allan Cox, Allan Cox & Associates Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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