Ed Bieber: All At Once

After weeks of waiting patiently
for the first dandelion to appear,
we opened our door on a shocking
sea of vibrant, yellow, near-stemless
lion’s teeth. Crouched, or crawling
on our hands and knees, we plucked
as many as we could, laid them in
a serpentine daisy chain across the yard,
around trees, over rocks, up the steps
and along the deck of the house.
 
That same day, as if our lemony plunder
had triggered a call and response,
our driveway blacktop was showered
with hundreds of pink and white petals
from our cherry tree, perfectly spaced
each from the other (how, I wondered,
by whom, by what patient hand?).
I got on my hands and knees again,
puffed at the petals and watched them
billow away and settle in fragile wisps
of ticklish, haphazard pastel. I blew
time and again, from one side, then
another. My neighbor, if he happened
to be watching, must have wondered.
why I didn’t use a leaf blower. Or
he might have considered joining me.

Ed Bieber is the founder and director of The Nature Place Day Camp.

Copyright 2020 Ed Bieber. From Outside/In: On Loving Nature & Living with Parkinson’s (Ragged Sky, 2020).