For a few hours our minds are happy prisoners
of plants and trees in full April bloom,
recent rains returning a truer green
to our LA landscape, even the cacti
grateful for the plentiful showers
which broke years of drought.
We forget the danger that fills our nightly
news, the warnings from journalists,
that feeling of being bombarded
from every direction with no escape –
yet we do, set free in these gardens
seeded from every continent.
Who would guess there are so many
types of aloe, both local and as faraway
as Madagascar and Brazil?
The Japanese maples are peaking
in bright red and crimson, while
Chinese snowball trees burst
with festive white pom-poms.
So much beauty, enough for
all who pay attention – whether
hummingbird or freeway driver,
honey bee, lizard, or goose –
the world raging outside impossible
to bring into this conversation.
—Amy Uyematsu
