Lily of the Valley
at the end
of the day
she appeared
with a black box
of dirt
and inside the dirt
there were rows of roots
bearing
green leaves
she had been quietly
tending the soil
for two months
time
growing these roots
into leaves
and when i looked down
into the box
of dirt
with green leaves
i was stunned …
i looked at her
and looked down at the leaves
and looked back at her
i knew what she had brought me
she knew what she had brought me
this wasn’t just a box of dirt
and leaves
this was a memory
from long ago
that i had shared with her
when she was
a little girl
telling her how
when i was
a little girl
just her age
my favorite flower was
a tiny white bell
that smelled like the most beautiful perfume
in the world
and that nobody can bottle it
i told her how i’d never forgotten
what it smelled like
and how i hoped one day
she would find the flower
and breathe it in
i tried three times
to find it
once a nursery promised
they could order it
but after checking back
a time or two
it was not to be
another time a florist had my hopes up
convinced they had the flower
in stock
but it turned out
not to be
my flower
but something called
Leucojum
and from a distance
it looks the same
with its tiny white bells
but closeup
the green dots at the bottom of the bells
ring wrong
and the missing perfume
is a dead giveaway
another time
i found some bulbs at a big box store
and potted them straight away
and watered ‘em and waited
and waited
and waited
but the bells
did not appear
my daughter was 3
when she first asked me
what my favorite flower was
now she’s 18
out on her own
but she came back
in the middle of March
with a black box
of dirt
bearing green leaves
that may or may not
sprout into tiny white bells
of perfume
and while it would be wonderful
if they did
just knowing
she didn’t forget …
how she’s been
sitting in a horticulture class
in college
learning all about soil
and how to treat it
to grow whatever it is
you wanna grow
so when she saw the bulbs
in a big box store
two months ago
she bought ‘em straight away
and found a black box
and a bag of soil
armed with the knowledge
of what the soil needs …
it was hard for her to leave home
it was hard to watch her go
it’s been hard ever since
but last night
my 3-year-old daughter
came back
home
to surprise me
she did not forget ….
TL