How to live
in a world filled
with the world.
Each year, nine now,
new leaves return
to this volunteer Japanese maple
that took root
in this terra cotta urn
beside this red camellia,
to this stray English walnut
that strangled the potted epazote
and now sends a pale tap root
through the narrow drainage hole.
It is as simple
and as complicated
as that.
The camellia grows upright in shade,
the maple bends
to the late afternoon sunlight
beyond the eaves.
We could not revive the epazote.
We would not straighten
the graceful curve
of the maple.
M.S. Rooney lives in Sonoma, California with poet Dan Noreen. Her work appears in journals, including Illuminations, Leaping Clear, MockingHeart Review, and Superpresent and anthologies, including A Walk with Nature: Poetic Encounters that Nourish the Soul (University Professors Press). Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.