My parents are tilling the earth: raising
beds of turnips, onion and beet, 
planting thyme, oregano, rhubarb. 

Little pots of tomato and pepper punctuate
the deck. Six-foot deer fence protects 
carrots. They talk of chickens, new dogs, breeding

even, litters of squirming fur under their care. 
They are keeping busy. Growing. 
The gentle rhythms of survival. Wake

and watch the black-headed juncos
flit on the powerline. Notice the sun
slant across the lawn at this time

each morning. Perhaps this is enough. 
It isn’t. Their grandchildren lie as ashes in the land. 

Lise Gaston Davidson is the author of Cityscapes in Mating Season (Signature). Her work has been awarded the CBC Poetry Prize and the Harold Taylor Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Her second poetry collection will be released with Thistledown Press in 2027. She lives in North Vancouver.