In Future Gardens

Rose Malone

We’ll need to wear white burqas

To work the dream gardens.

We’ll cup our hands to funnel

Monsoons to the heart of our lives.

We’ll keep at bay the fierce aridity

Of thorns, the silent creep

Of feet on pale, deficient skin;

We’ll nourish the tender greenness

Of nascent shoots and undefended stems,

To keep our hands in touch

With the rich darkness of earth.