Walking in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens
The next morning
while my Mother
packed her bag
for her few weeks respite
in the Rest Home
to recuperate
from her broken ankle
my daughter and I
bundled my father
and his walker
into the car
and headed for
the Botanical Gardens...
We parked the car
in Hagley Park
in the centre of the city
and entered the Gardens
by crossing the Avon River
the sparrows didn't mind
an invigoratingly cold bath
and a few warm days
preceding our visit
had tricked nature
into believing
it was spring...
we encountered
some distant cousins
of Harold and Maude
and slowly ambled
around a small circuit
of bare trees,
evergreens
and conifers
of great size
and shape
and proportion
until we were drawn
like magnets
to a pink cloud
in a winter's sky
a glorious pink
tulip magnolia
of such beauty
and my father
pointed out
some buttons
on the ground
knowing they were in fact
the nuts of this
eucalyptus specimen
and all around us
there were signs
of spring waiting
to break out -
in flower,
in song,
in hallowed life...
Oh happy days
*
