David Gardiner: Two Poems

Wild Flowers | Bus Brakes and Debussy

Wild Flowers

Long, late April
in Nebraska &
I've spent the day
looking elsewhere.

Pulling azaleas away from the house,
giving them another last chance
for a season on their own
behind the garage, I grow to appreciate
all the dangers of lye, high ph in the soil,
minerals wicking off century old foundation stones.

What gives me peace,
takes their blossoms &
burns their roots,
leaves their branches brittle.

It's a sort of osteoporosis of nature.
That which shelters us
stunts the wildest flowers we have.
Even the roses will answer my daconill love
with black spot & rust
if I provide it on my own time:

In that July hour of the afternoon
between sleepy wasps &
wisteria fluff, when
Marlene & the girls have gone.

Nature demands her schedule:
water early & feed in the stillness.
The wildest blooms we have
are stunted by anything
which comes to them upon any
but their own terms.

This may be why, on the porch working out
these poems, I both love & wince at the tumble
of return, with afterschool snacks & homework.
The comforting din of love flowering
on its own schedule.

Bus Brakes and Debussy

Our loves wing out —
Heavy planes
Over Rikers.

Saturday morning traffic a low tide,
silver cranes stretch the sky past Harlem.
Air brakes & busses wash under Sloan-Kettering,
gears downshifting up 2nd.

Our loves wing out —
Heavy planes
Over Rikers.

We lie and listen to a city
out of tune — aeolian tunnels, screeching bridges.
Every taxi's caught curb is a sore finger
on the wrong string.

Our loves wing out —
Heavy planes
Over Rikers.

I watch my wishes on the backs of planes
above these noises. The remote speaker's warm &
a little bigger than your hand,
quiet, balanced too often on this bedrail.

Poet's Biography:

David Gardiner is an Associate Professor of English at Creighton, Director of Creighton University Press, Editor of An Sionnach, and Director of the Summer School at Trinity College Dublin. He's written books on Yeats, Spenser, and Contemporary Irish Poetry as well as Irish Renaissance poetry; his articles have appeared in the U.S., Ireland, France, and U.K; and his poetry has appeared in Sou'wester, Poetry Ireland, Natural Bridge, and others.