Considering sunflowers

This will be a gardening summer.  The yard has needed attention for a long while.  Sure the grass is cut regularly, but this year it*s time to notice what*s already there (lilies of the valley, violets, peonies, the stray columbine which the hummingbird finds even when it*s tucked away behind a bush).  And it*s time to plant.  The heirloom sunflower seeds are in the mail.

I consider the place in the yard

The sun shines

The most,

Prepare the dirt

For sunflowers.

I flew into Fargo once

Late summer

To visit my love.

The plane landed over a field of open sunflowers

Gold and yellow, shining;

The time of day when everything

Looks golden

Late afternoon, early evening light.

Before then I*d seen sunflowers

In ones and twos and threes.

The field began to glow as we came in low

To land.

The sunflowers watched,

Attentive faces.

We could almost pick them out

Individually.

I consider the yard

The best spot for a sunflower mix

Viewed from the ground,           

A family of sunflowers which will show golden

Late afternoon

Early evening

Even as it*s followed the sun

All day.

They will

Watch us land.