Husbandry
If you will plant me on your windowsill
and shine your gentle face on me each morning
you may shape my growth to please yourself
and I will do my best to like it
I will hold still
while you trim me with a scissors
clipping my oddness away
like the gardeners who produced trees
in the shapes of hearts and chickens
but somewhere inside --
I can't help it --
I will nurture secretly
the wild growth, the craziness
you can't prune away
If you will plant me on your windowsill
and shine your gentle face on me each morning
you may shape my growth to please yourself
and I will do my best to like it
I will hold still
while you trim me with a scissors
clipping my oddness away
like the gardeners who produced trees
in the shapes of hearts and chickens
but somewhere inside --
I can't help it --
I will nurture secretly
the wild growth, the craziness
you can't prune away
[1977 or 1978]