Celebrating 50 Years of Earth Day: “Planting a Perspective,” by Charlotte Greene

This April we are filling the EasternPennPoints blog with art and poetry in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

Planting a Perspective

by Charlotte Greene

What in the world are you doing, curious Shadow said,
as I took a spade, hoe and trowel from inside the shed.
It’s way too early to plant anything directly in the ground
he growled loudly from the deck with a darkly disapproving frown.
The earth is so cold the poor sprouts would wither and go dead
he continued to bark with a shake of his mighty doggy head.
Smartie Pants opened her beak to readily concur
with a derisive squawk and a pretty naughty word.

I calmly proceeded in the face of their mockery and scorn
to dig up a sunny spot in the flower bed now so forlorn.
For I had a little secret that had not yet been shared
of six seeds found inside an heirloom apple I had pared.
I could almost taste their sweetness as I plucked the ripened fruit
from the lovely apple trees these seeds would someday skyward shoot.

But when the job was finished and I turned and told them why,
they fell over laughing so hard it made them hoot and cry.
When I asked why so funny they gasped for breath to reply.
We are now the pets of a seventy-seven-year-old optimistic fool,
apple pie in the sky is the only fruit that will make you drool!

I calmly turned to them and said with nary a trace of fear or dread,
I can’t wait to see you eat your words while I eat apple pie instead!

 

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Charlotte Greene is a recent and way overdue retiree—an escapee from academia, from the lecture hall, and her laboratory. Finally, free, never again to toil over a multiple-choice question, administer an oral exam, or write a scientific paper (although she has published more than enough to surmount the publish or perish decree). Instead, she is off on a new quest to flex her hand at fiction with an occasional poem thrown in as a breather from the adventure of writing a novel. Her whole world and now the whole earth itself has changed course as she sits in her home, sheltered in place.