Dreamed of John McCue’s 
   power washer 
We used to share a cubicle at work 
He would tell me 
   of his volunteer work 
at the Zen center 
   That was before 
the sudden fatal heart attack 

I borrowed the power washer 
  to clean up the back patio
Just down from our over wild     
  permaculture garden 
all edible plants
Kale, arugula, blackberries,
   rosemary, thyme 
  and the many fruit trees 
We had nurtured those 
    messy, often unkept thickets 
year after year for 
  decades

I saw that covered patio 
   one last time 
After we sold the house
The garden paved over 
   with bland flagstone 
and “forever chemical” depositing 
            AstroTurf®

There was a new shelf
Where the worn out couch and 
    painting of 
        a basket of fruit used to be.
3 white gallons of RoundUp®
   on that new shelf 
All the fruit trees gone

Maybe the new owners 
   with their convincing letter 
     how much 
    they loved our garden 
will put the RoundUp® in a borrowed power washer 
   when the Astroturf®
     or their children’s plastic 
     Play structures 
get dirt or “weeds” near them 

Maybe Buddha 
  can help me 
    with that nagging drip of 
      recollection 

Attachment is suffering 
    Sadness and Wonder
Spewing from the power wash 
  Of fading memory 
a different future

December 19, 2023 SGL Brunswick, ME