Strange Garden

July 2, 2021 - One minute read - 160 words

You say you’ve seen me? It was misdirection. I wasn’t really there.

Come, let me show you where I’ve been hiding. Even my dreams couldn’t find me.

Here is my strange garden. This patch where briers and thistles hug, that’s where I planted my pain.

Over there I buried my shame. See it clawing its way to the surface? Later, we’ll find it conspiring with fear.

And here, I know it’s difficult to see, here is where I hid.

Hid isn’t quite right. Old habits; you understand.

This is where I was lost. Buried by everything I didn’t want to feel, pushing it into the darkness.

Taking me down with it. Until there was no light in my dreams, only distorted shadows and sound.

Choked by bitter weeds, I shrunk smaller and smaller. More room to plant my garden.

Now, I tend myself. Light hunts the darkness. Green shoots of love spring up from the ground.