Blue flag iris

I am used to working in older buildings.  After all, I have served as a priest in oh so many settings, buildings that are in their second or third or fourth incarnations.  It is probably fitting that a piece of what I do now is volunteer in a clinic which used to be an old motel.  I just noticed the iris in back on my way in this morning.  It continues to amaze me what flourishes even in fluorescent light.

We sit and talk

Under bare fluorescent light.

Still

I want to take each person

For a walk

In the sun,

Stroll by the blue flag iris

I noticed this morning,

It grows In the back lot

Of what used to be

The old motel,

Now

A clinic.

We sit and talk.

I am amazed at what grows

Under even fluorescent light.

This week

I hear friends

After much hurt and loss,

Growing back together

Slowly, slowly, slowly.

I watch the woman

Who got the ultimatum

Last week,

Grab on for dear life

And,

After breathing,

Hear her life

Held dear.

I want to take each person

For a walk down the garden path,

The one that ends on blacktop,

Stop at the blue flag iris

Behind the old motel

The one that is now

A clinic.