Beauty Right out My Front Door
We’ve been
alternating between
drenching showers
and saturating sun
and our garden is loving it.
The lawn is a deep green,
flourishing, and repeatedly
begging for a closer cut.
The moisture on everything
makes it shiny and fresh,
with water droplets beading
in speckled lumps and bumps.
Lit in the warm light
of early evening,
it reminds me
I don’t have to go far
to find beauty–
it is right here,
out my front door.
Yellow hibiscus blooms
stand proudly with their
shoulders thrust back,
stamen erect and proudly reaching,
and the soft pink mandevilla
climb up the strings
rigged up on our porch columns.
They beguile in overlapping clumps
of sinuous shape and mild color,
transparent a bit, when backlit.
Not to mention
the lacy Japanese anemones,
airy and leggy
with their frothy
but perky polka dot buds,
or the overzealous,
violety mauve
obedience plants,
marching in flanks
past the tangle
of tomato vines,
which are overburdened,
slumping, and sagging.
They are spewing
heavy, brightly ripe,
orangey red plunder–
such luscious burdens,
that impatiently wait
for their deliciousness
to be devoured.
Meanwhile,
the flagrantly robust,
vividly vibrant zinnias
are festooned with their
butterfly friends,
and also flamboyantly host
pretty, cheery goldfinches,
and whirring, fast drinking
hummingbirds.
I need not go anywhere
to bask in all this
late summer beauty,
gulping it down too
like nectar to my soul,
returning to marvel
again and again,
at this gorgeous
profusion of form,
function, fragrance,
and flavor.
Beauty is
an abstract concept
found the world over,
but it is especially present
on one’s home turf
if you only
will pay attention.
by Polly Castor
9/6/26
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