Bowing
 
Five years since its clearance,
the garden remains disputed land.
Nature’s guerrilla struggles to rewild,
my striving to fashion a cottage garden.
 
Spring incursions, nagging common sense,
‘ Bend from the knees’   ‘Use a kneeler’ , is
ignored as  prolonging chores. So doubling over
I plunge my grumbling body into undergrowth .
 
The small of my back screams as I  straighten
up to inspect handiwork.  Decide to stay stooped,
tackle the pain  later in one hit. Thereafter move
around the garden like a lower case ‘r’.
 
Hour and half later, I ease up with caution.
Kneading my back, see beyond ancient roses
to my late grandmother, whose own crooked stance,  
I once smiled at, but have now inherited with this garden.
 
Her peasant wisdom, learned the hard way,
picking up potatoes all day. Minimising the wear
and tear on a body that must last her 80 years.
Now across time we bow to each other.

Fiona Sinclair

Dining with the Dead Fiona Sinclair lives in a village in the UK. She has had several collections of poems published . The latest, Dining with the Dead, has been published by Erbacce Press Liverpool. Her poem ‘Ladies of Cadiz’ was nominated for the Forward Poetry prize. Fiona’s collection Slow Burner was a Poetry Book Society recommendation. Her poems have been placed in many competitions.  She is a reader for Black Fox magazine. Fiona is just beginning to write prose.  Several of her short stories have been placed in literary magazines. It is her ambition to be nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The book is available from: https://www.erbacce-press.co.uk/fiona-sinclair

If you have any thoughts about this poem or this publication,  Fiona Sinclair   would be pleased to hear them