The gardener comes
with a new red hose.
He sets up the sprinklers
under the pepper tree,
waters the zinnias, lilies, iris,
then rakes smooth
the gravel in the path.
Perhaps he didn’t actually see it happen,
I mean the opening of the stone.
But how many of us have
watched a seed open?
Perhaps at the time he was touching
the broken stem of a rose.
Ben Jacques Stories 