growing

by Linda M. Crate

white and green leaves
flowers of lavender peeping through the seams of
disillusioned stars calling themselves
mankind grow regardless of their apathy
and indifference, their echoes remaining longer
than those of star children
believing their possessions can make them happy;
i used to be among them until i discovered
that one day this world will sink forever
beneath the fires of the sun,
and so instead i stare at horizons of trees
wandering lonely country roads
singing with birds,
watching flowers grow the simple things are the ones
that often matter in love and life and nature;
so i hold unto their echoes
even when the rest of mankind forgets —
technology has made us all lazy and unheeding of time who
sucks one second of immortality away always even
when we wink our eyes closed for sleep;
i wish i could dream with my eyes
open because there's so much i have yet that i wish
to be seen, so many things i have to do
laying undone —
fractured stones know my pain
but i won't be broken forever like these vines
i will find a way to grow
unnoticed until my vines can no longer be cut down by
icicles of apathy and indifference coated on the
words many strangers and friends alike utter.