What Grows Here?

What Grows Where You Live? 

What Grows Here?

By Sandra Rose Hughes

 

What grows here on Rockriver Hill

with decomposed granite soil,

Defensive space toil, scant water,

wild currant briars, forest fires

or gopher root-attacks thrown in?

 

Resentment can grow here, in our high desert loam,

My heart knows this all too well.

But so can juniper trees, and bull pines,

And forgiveness--and fresh starts.

 

It’s too dry on our hill for cottonwood trees

And it’s too cold for citrus, though we can’t help but try,

And our pomegranates, peaches, and iris bulbs (do you need any?)

Never seem to die.

 

Very little is convenient here-- still, we stay because,  

Like the junipers and yuccas,

This is our home.  

We send down deep roots

In search of water where we are,

And we thrive.