Brambles

I was pruning roses today
And thought about the grooming of children
How we can starve them of nurture
Until the smallest drop of water
Feels like a rain storm
A simple smile
Feels like devotion
How grateful they become

And how easy it is to shape them
By snapping off what doesn’t belong
According to our vision for them
But what if we let them be wild
With dead heads and errant branches
What would be their destiny?

With grooming–
Our children lose their wildness
They lose their instincts
And they fall prey to any ‘gardener’
Who offers rewards
And they conform yet once again
Bent to someone else’s vision…

What would the wild world look like
Without walls and borders
Without gutted forests
And dammed rivers
Without caged animals
Paved roads, manicured lawns
And the 9-5 of authority
You know…just wild?

But we are afraid of the wild
Afraid we won’t survive
Without the ‘gardener’
Without that drop of attention
Without that smidgen of nurture
To feed us
So well trained are we

But sometimes the wild wins
And our fears fall away
We bloom as per our nature
And for our own enjoyment
And if we can’t
Well, then–
We’d rather go to seed
And become fodder for the birds.

7/2020 bjb