Summer in central California usually means that the garden is bursting with tomatoes, cucumbers, snap peas and squash. But not this year. This year, the garden is bursting with gophers.
Gophers?
Yes, gophers. They have invaded the vegetable patch and eaten EVERYTHING. They seem to especially like tomatoes, because those plants disappeared first. But believe me, the vegetable garden is gone.
It makes me want to throw up my hands in frustration. It makes me want to stomp my feet. But I'm a poet, so I decided to write a poem about gophers instead. It's not finished yet. Check back and see how it develops!
A gopher dropped into my garden last May.
He wasn't invited - just popped up one day.
He dug a snug den through a hole round and neat,
And he settled right in -
Then he started to EAT!
First, he ate radishes, spicy and red.
Next, he moved into the strawberry bed.
That's what I've written so far. I keep jotting down ideas to see how they work. When I find a line that I like, I work on it for a while. Then I set it aside and take another look at it on another day. When I'm satisfied with a line, I'll add it to the poem. Some poems come easily, and others take a lot of work to hammer out. I wonder how long this one will take? I'm sure it will be a lot longer than it took that gopher to eat my tomatoes!
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