Garlic

No one has ever told us we had to study our lives,


make of our lives a study, as if learning natural history


or music, that we should begin


with the simple exercises first


and slowly go on trying


the hard ones, practicing till strength


and accuracy became one with the daring.


--Adrienne Rich

Our thin house

walls were a papery-white membrane

that held the cloves a bulb.

In rich sand and sun

we thrive

(sleek, white and full)

without moist soil, parched,

(flakes crack and fall).

We cry out together:

protection from evil spirits

Reduce, prevent, strengthen.

[for Westover]