Colorado, April in the Garden

brittle and brown tomato plants,
decorated with shriveled
red and yellow bulbs, skins
toughened by october's sun

and november's frost,
linger in the garden
neglected as the Christmas tree
set on January 6th's curb
for January 4th's pickup,
still bearing those three ornaments
homemade years ago by cousins
barely remembered and unseen for
- what? - twenty years?
still, those days were good,
the whole family around a tree and
a table that groaned under
the weight of pounds of turkey and
generations of stories.

I dream,
as I dig in the garden,
nostalgic for childhood innocence
or, at least, for next year's
tomatoes