Gardening Leave

Life stirs leisurely beyond these dead irises
Flowers bloom and sigh
Sunsets laugh and cry
Short grasses grow tall and bend inside time
But not for me
Bird song breaks at dawn
And slips away by twilight
Each coda mute to ears of mud
Round striped sweaters with swollen pollen legs
Compose and inspire beauty beyond my twisted digits
Invertebrates flourish beyond and
Beneath my broken back
As I fester here like bad compost
Nothing will ever grow from me