Garden Clean-up

Garden Clean-up

Every garden bed is brown.
once proud irises bent over in sorrow,
frozen and thawed, trampled by countless
dogs, high school students rushing
from warm cars to class.
leaves from last fall form
a dense mat of dark brown.
the tines of the old rake
sing as the detritus of the winter is
deposited onto the sidewalk.
Miniature purple reticulated irises,
lemon yellow crocuses and
newly emerging bulbs are visible;
Spring is here.