Plants & People

Plants will stretch their roots incredibly

to find a drop of water or they might
come up through a concrete crack
pushing, striving, just to catch a glimpse of light.
If they shrivel, it is not through any choice
that they have made, or act of will. Plants
do not love, but still they fight to live,
survive, grow to shade or fruit or flower.
People are not like that. If the water isn't there,
and plenty of it, they will wail, and curse
the dryness. If the darkness falls upon them,
the blame assigned points everywhere but
at themselves. But sometimes, they
are similar to plants, and dying in the
dryness are made new and vibrant.
There is a choice, though, to receive
or not, that vegetation does not share.
I was dying in a drought, leaves
shriveling from too much heat,
no rain, the pruning was too vigorous,
the petals' fragrance faint so as to be
a figment of someone's fantasy, imagination.
And then it rained. And then the sun peeked
through the clouds. And then the green.

(c) Ellen Gillette, 2013