Invisible Growing--For Jeff

The earth seems stagnant

Dead and waiting

Waiting for something

Not for me

The air oppresses

Hot with moisture

Heavy with pressure

Weighing down on me

Nothing will happen

I think to myself

I will sit in this soil

Fester and rot

But I feel little shoots

Of pain in the roots

Of me

Pushing out into

The deep, wet soil

Heading out where I cannot see

And something in my shoulders

Tells me the sun is growing closer

Am I a little taller?

Is that a branch? A leaf?

Don't tell me those are rosebuds

On my outstretched arms

I thought that I was hopeless

Caught in nothing

Stuck within the stationary

But just as I suspected

I was growing all along

And soon the buds will bloom

Turning into ripest fruit.