Featured Blog: Reyes Cardenas

The Enchanted Garden

My grandmother had a green thumb,
she could make rocks blossom,

and petunias sprout from pebbles.
The weeds would rush away from her,

giggling and flinging clods of dirt in haste.
Bugs would never eat her plants,

instead they headed to the neighbor’s yard,
hide if a bird flew overhead,

or garden rake in the toolshed,
an inexplicable glint in their eyes.

My grandmother had a green thumb,
the very dirt, if asked, turned into velvet.

Reyes Cardenas’ writings have been published in Caracol, El Grito, and Place of Herons Press. His books include Anti-Bicicleta Haiku, Survivors of the Chicano Titanic, Elegies For John Lennon, and I Was Never A Militant Chicano. They are available in ebook form from Alexander Street Press. Visit Reyes at chicanopoet.blogspot.com/