Mrs. Garber's War

The ad pictures Devonshire gardens

            in Spring

                        in England,

                                    inapproachable.

I remember spry Mrs. Garber,

            her Model A

                        and impeccable garden.

In Spring she made Indiana,

            her yard of years,

                        inhabitable

through daffodil armies and jonquils

            the lesser cups of purple grape hyacinths,

                        all plundered by heavy bees,

while she outlived her husband

            and waited the terminal Spring

                        the return of the titmice.

and puttered

            and cleared the porch,

                        marshalling citizen cardinals

and lining jars of potted geraniums

            in drill squads

                        around the yard.