Shade Garden

Summer days,

and if you want a shade garden,

if you want refreshing honeysuckle breeze

to float through cedar,

if you want the cooling

of eighty years of standing

through moisture nurtured northwest nights,

come join us — you are welcome

If you want to be lifted

in the bright bubbling release

of knowing you are loved,

and that none of your halting efforts

and unfulfilled resolutions

make any difference —

nothing held over your head —

we are here to love you — you are welcome

And if you want to feel your roots

growing thick and strong 

in the rich, dark humus of home,

curling like toes in cool, damp sand,

kissed by mycelium,

if you want to know your purpose

is established and entwined with many others,

come join us — you belong.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 28, 2016