One Day in a Garden

One day in a garden
Ditty shouted hieroglyphics
…much like the sound
of garbled baseball scores…
to row on row of daffodils
drowsing in the sun.
 
Next she charmed
a school of carp
…there lazing in a pond…
to dance a koi ballet
beneath the water lilies
of plié…glissade…pirouette
and swirling arabesque.
 
And then she spied the cat
and took evasive action
…for only cats and Irish folk
know how to truly see her…
and floated to the branch 
of a cherry blossom tree.
 
She sang sad songs and ballads
…“The Milkmaid’s Now A’ Weepin’”
followed by “Oh, Danny Boy”…
just to keep her spirits up
as ascending all the while
she flew from branch to branch.
 
There at the top she caught the wing
of a swooping nightingale
…who seemed to know the tunes…
and together they flew far away
one day in a garden.

Bonnie Marshall