The Comfort of Beauty

Let’s house ourselves

within beauty. Step by step enticed

into the arms of oversized rockers

on wrap around porches of scent.

Until once again

we fall

to our knees – scrambling up only after

crossing ourselves and new thresholds

into a living room paneled in trees of life

never needing pruning

yet requiring regular watering

tinted turquoise

with Miracle Gro-compassion.

Our larder endlessly replicating,

freely bequeathed –

like self-effacing waves reaching shore

or a live wire of sparrows

ceding their song to a lone lark.

Our farmer’s table groaning

with the aches, anxieties, and celebrations

of our ancestors.

Placemats of karma set before us –

terrible and tempting, a soft resting place for our elbows

as we gaze

at patterns rearranging themselves effortlessly

because, at last, we have grasped

how to thread ourselves through

enlightenment’s Third Eye.

Each stitch a star pupil seeding

thyme for courage,

hyssop for cleansing,

sage for wisdom,

hops for mirth,

verbena leaves for good fortune,

Lady’s mantle for comfort,

rosemary for remembrance

while cabbage roses ring

our kitchen garden like Saturn –

dew impervious

to evaporation, spiraling.

©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2022