Fall: Jardin Ennui

Sunflowers. Some as tall as nine feet.

With bird-feeders on an abandoned clothes-line post nearby,

which has rusted to a beautiful semi-gloss.

I’m sure that I’ll be as excited as usual next Spring,

but the garden is looking a bit scraggly now.

The muskmelons got mixed reviews, and the sunflowers

are all leaning.

A bit.

I tried to prop them up with stakes, but that was after the fact.

It’s all turning yellow.

But! Those buds have a ton of seed on them.

The flowers haven’t been worked over by the squirrels,

or the birds.

They’ve found easier pickins through the summer.

When we’re deep into fall,

the sparrows will go on to other options.

Then they’ll appreciate the sunflowers. Yes-yes!

Sometimes there’s as many as twenty, on the lawn, and on the feeders.

So the more timid ones will settle on the flowers and pick.

Like it’s an hors d’oeuvre table before the buffet clears.