Longing

Karen visited, bringing me two bouquets of roses.
The red ones had a peppery scent,
the white ones' fragrance was
nearly peony with rose water. A white wave of citrus
coiling around tea. Reminding me of the rose petal candy
I made as a preteen.
I extended the bouquets to both cats.
Obi, my pointy African cat, sniffed and sniffed.
It slowly dawned on me and shook me shook me shook me
that these were from my yard.
Now as then, my rose bushes would gift me
with blooms in time for my June first birthday.
She also brought me a big bouquet of water mint,
lemon balm and spearmint.
These were from my yard.
The lemon balm a gift from her land, the mint, my parents' mint
that I had worried over and now is rooted all over the space
that was to hold vegetables.

i relish the scented green and mourn that they have had a season to go wild in the yard,
without my yanking, my pruning care.