At the Naples Botanical Garden

by | Apr 13, 2020

 
 
Through the bougainvillea and clematis arch,
past the placards for Screw Palm, Gru-Gru,

Powder Puff, blocking the sun from our eyes
to get a better look at a maroon bloom

dangling beneath a dozen green bananas,
I’m immortal, especially when I enter

the wooden play structure with its 30,000-piece
Lego bumblebee, where a docent’s asking

a two-year old what about eyes, pointing
to her own, asking how many parts.

Here, with the pond lilies, where water features
pair with lessons on what the bee sees,

I know I won’t die because who dies
with their nose in a blooming jasmine,

while rocking in a hammock reading
A Wrinkle in Time? Palm fronds shade us

as we discuss what’s next— the silk floss tree,
the royal Poinciana, or the Bird of Paradise.
 
 
Photo by Wind&Wuthering

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