Color Party

I repotted an orchid yesterday. She had been calling me to do it for a while but I kept putting other priorities first. Alas, I worked hard to pry her free from her too-small pot, only to find another invisible at first, within. That tiny clay pot had to be smashed with a hammer to remove. And then, like a Russian doll, there was still yet another smaller plastic one within, cruelly tiny and constricting for all her expansion. Her roots exploded outwards with the release, and I sat on my shitty tile floor of my kitchen and cried for us both.  And then, between flying nerf bullets and short-order-chefing, soothing a coughing child, phones ringing, a time consuming work deadline, and constant interruptions, I finally found a few minutes to write. (Poem below.)

It's time for all of us to release, to laugh and explore more, to not hold back, not be held back. 

Photo by Daniel Tafjord, Unsplash.com

Orchid,

I have ignored you too long

Dear and patient friend,

Silent and forgiving witness

Seemingly impartial you

Have obliged me always

Willingly surrendered to my

Impulses, observing

Since when and where it began

That grand house with its black shutters

And big wells of hope

Remember how you and I made our acquaintance there

By way of another friend?

You bloomed so joyously at my wedding

That exquisite day we met,

Everything was possible

Then you nestled in among us so discreetly

No bother at all

You humbly kept us company,

Sometimes entertained us with your creative flourishes

Brandishing soft finery,

Your explosion of delicate color,

So full of laughter

It's been too long

You too soon receded to responsibilities,

Conceded to burdens and pace

For eternal stretches,

You made yourself smaller,

Maintained your quiet and graceful place

That started so long ago...

Through that husband of mine,

My sons by him, now grown, so glorious

And other men,

A new child

Several homes

Still, you never left my side

I need to thank you, and apologize

You deserved more than occasional outbursts of raucousness,

Of unbridled joy and color,

I should have noticed your needs

Your deserving of better care

More laughter,

That obligatory maintenance you received was far from the adoration you deserved

How could I have let you make yourself smaller?

You were simply that loyal, selfless,

Such forced containment, sacrifice that has known no end.

I know you so well

Today I removed your shoes to find such tired and misshapen feet,

Your roots bound, 

Movement withheld,

I wept

Still, your humility astounds me.

I stretched your limbs, caressed your gnarled potential

You are free, 

And still I can see there is longing in your tired imperfections

Released finally from your too tight confines, your painful collusion

Again, I’m truly sorry, 

You have always deserved more

All that you wanted, simple as it always was: to celebrate, to explore, to throw heads back in delight, to fill hearts to delicious

It’s time for a color party

Beautiful, depleted orchid

That sits on my window

In a pot finally the right size for dreams

My friend, Orchid in her new home, surrounded by locally mined crystals