"Why I Like to Garden" by John Gower

A hibiscus grows in my garden

pale delicate crepe-paper yellow

dark blood-red center

this morning like last year

all my puttering stopped

when a lone flower appeared

there in this flower

my mother speaks

Aloha, aloha, she says

like she did when she was happy

drawn to her gaze

our good years settle

like sun

upon her yellow petals

unspoken love almost forgotten

comes back alive in her red

she is resurrected

and I am

forgiven