The Keeper

[fantasticmissfi]

Once long ago
Before the winter
That is ceaseless
She took a seedling
Of his heart
That flowered once
And for the first time
In the spring
That
Was
Them.

In a pocket
Rich of soil
In her soul
She dug the seedling
And she warmed it
With her knowledge
Of
His
Being

And she watered
It with leaking
From her eyes
And she welcomed
Roots of fingers
As only
She
Could.

In the hothouse
Of their past
That stained the present
And the future
The seedling fed
Independent
Of
Her
Will.

Thoughts of poison
And the axe
- clear some space
let some light -
As every botanist
Well knows
The biggest plant
Stunts
Those
Below.

Yet when a species
Is so rare
The mother plant
Herself withered...
Perhaps this sapling
Is the last
Of
Its
Kind.

So she learns
To sit beneath it
Lean against it
Hang upon it
Fix a swing
And a birdhouse
To the tree
That is
The
Past.

Though she visits
Only sometimes
The breath of summer
Will remind her
Of her last
Remaining keepsake
Of the springtime
Of
Their
Love.

And perhaps
One day he'll ask her
For a seedling
For his garden
Should he find
The empty space
Of a ghost
Cannot
Be
Borne.

And she, the keeper
Of his springtime
And his summer
Shall seek the flower
Of his heart
While they grow
Within her soul.

And she will nurture
Him a seedling
And she will warm it
With her memories
And she will water it
With her wisdom
And in wonder
She will bestow it
To him to love
As
He
Must.