planting

saturday
morning light plays
across the
grass, already shaggy-headed
with a million
tiny suns
dew-strewn
as you and i go out
to work

a tap-rooted
weed resists
the tug of my fingers
and releases its
expendable leaves
biding its time

why is it
that the powerful
things are this way
and beautiful things
need caring for
i ask myself
and
beside me
you reach up
to tuck in a strand of escaping
hair and leave a smudge
of dirt on your flushing skin
so that when you smile
just a little bit of the earth
gets caught
in a grin

and i get caught too
as i carefully pull aside
the soil and put
this new flower in

beneath the roots
i am adding something
a resolution.