Bring Me My Breakfast

Our Back Yard
Originally uploaded by thegreatplotnik.

So here we are, today's the day, October 26, 2005. Guess what: The Great Plotnik feels great! And why shouldn't he? The first half of his life has been a blast.

My Back Steps

The sun is hot and warms the redwood stairs
The poppies great with expectation
Coffee in my favorite mug
Before the latest renovations
Once these yards had lilacs, pears

Can’t help adding, building, changing
Making green this rock-hard outpost
Broke my back with five-gallon tubs
Soil amendments, dirt and compost
Muscles sore, shoulders complaining

Ancient rented rototiller
First pass laughed
But each new pass did connect us
A loamy homie growin’ my breakfast

Sanchez Street once had cobble stones
In the fifties the Highway department
Ripped ‘em out and neighbors took ‘em.
Now our garden’s an assortment
Of rocks and cobbles, bricks and bones

The sun feels sweet, this Indian Summer
doesn’t leave much room for heat
We long to sweat like other Cali people
I drink my coffee, bare my feet
And dream of something good to eat

On Dasher, on rasher! On sausage and bacon
From all of this thin-ness we all must awaken
On Benedict eggs and sauce Hollandaises
And all of the issues that eating them raises
I think we’re all wusses
Our sins are not vices
I won’t feel guilty
I won’t pay those prices
Bring Me My Breakfast On My Back Steps!

The avocado shades the rhododends
It’s perfect in its pure simplicity
The plant that needs the sun just takes it
Puts on lush leaves in its complicity
Grows guacamole and shields its friends

In the spring the Iris God Opened up a vein
Poured out purples, pinks and teals
Anarchy upon the color wheel

The sun is hot, it warms the redwood stairs
I drink my coffee, close my eyes
and dream about the world that gardeners see
This year’s harvest, next year's surprise
Once these yards had lilacs, pears

On cherry, on iris! On pansies, on mums
Throw open the gates, and bring on the huns
We’ll wait for our season, we’ll take what comes
While I drink my coffee and sit in the sun
I think I’m a wuss, I’m lazy, that’s it
I don’t feel guilty I’m happy as shit
Bring Me My Breakfast On My Back Steps!