Last week it rained in the abandoned lot
A sonnet that seeks to connect with nature in an urban environment
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This poem began with a single image, a small cluster of wild purple lupines growing in an abandoned lot in my neighborhood. The whole block has been fenced off for years, and I wouldn’t have even seen them at all if it hadn’t been for a hole in the fence. It was shocking to see them first because it doesn’t rain much here in Southern California, and there’s not much green space in the city where things can grow. Gardens and flowers require regular dedicated watering and attention, and I’ve discovered that, alas, I’m quite terrible at that.
And so, when I spotted these wild lupines among the weeds behind the fence, it was quite startling! Also, lupines are a favorite flower of my childhood. They grew all along the tree line in my backyard in Vermont. The climate there is radically different from here, so it was even more surprising to find them in Long Beach.
As I developed this poem, it became a reflection of my sometimes desperate longing for nature in an urban environment and my nostalgia for wild flowers in particular, especially where they seem rather unwelcome or at least uninvited. After experimenting for a while, I settled on a Shakespearean sonnet for this poem.
What do you think? Please leave your thoughts in the comments for other Alchemists!
Last week it rained in the abandoned lot
Last week it rained on the abandoned lot
and lupine like a purple secret grew.
The fence, it seemed, had been forgotten, too.
I glimpsed the flowers through a broken slat.
Invasive mustards raised their yellow wands
and loosed a hazy pollen through the air.
A solitary titmouse perched back there,
one world among a thousand other worlds.
A passing truck kicked up the grit and tar
with reeking bits of trash and sour smell,
but then some orange poppies cast their spell,
each fluttering petaled note spectacular.
I crouched and gazed into the feral shrine
as if I could inhale suspended time.
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