Raised Beds (sum total of three poems)

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Raised Beds 


It takes seven cedar planks, 

forty-two star-bit screws, impact

driver and chop saw, two 


pressure-treated 2x4’s, table 

saw if you hope to rip trim: all this 

to lift the earth three feet closer


to heaven. Best for those with bad 

backs, neat freaks, or anyone who needs

a border to help know what to do 


with their bag of dirt and the weight

of this urge to give new life a go.

At checkout, who can say


what the sum of all this lumbering 

will cost us, or in the green

just how many chances of a garden


we’ll help a stranger load

by the time the season closes

like an account, but when the yellow tape 


comes whirring back, snapped shut

and pocketed, let this be

the only lasting measure.


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