Sweat drips, slow, seeping down like wet feathers
between my breasts while bothersome
beads of salty moisture
gather across my forehead.
I watch you, with my father,
as you both toil tediously,
wrestling a wheelbarrow to ease my burdens,
bending it to your will as you assemble the parts,
tightening each bolt
to make it strong
so that I can depend on it
as I depend on you.
With this tool, assembled with love,
I will carry mulch too and fro,
suffocating weeds that threaten to burst
free from the sickly soil beneath my feet,
transform what was barren and sad
to something verdant and vivacious.
So I watch helpless as you both suffer under the oppression
of this heat, hard and heavy, bearing down
like a workday upon your brow
Such toil, day in and day out,
yet finding time for me
and my wheelbarrow.
-07/23/10
