What entrancing work the girls make—
mother, two daughters, long trowel and rake,
planting delphinium and columbine,
weeding the dead and unwinding the vine.
How happy their thumbs impressing the roots,
how tender their fingers spreading the shoots.
Look!  The hose sprays, the ground grows velvet black.
Beads form on petals, diamonds to attract
the first April bees—three simple, pure and true,
who stand adoring, adorning the view.

© by Jeff Burt.
Used with the author's permission.