Empty Valentine

I grew these from seed:
two wonderful arms
two wonderful legs

and wonderful how two
proved the basis for
everything I grew

and killed and grew

imagine traveling miles
for a particular color

an idea with childhood
written all over it
as if it weren’t

a red and purple
sea hustling
a predatory people

but an eggshell you
gave me to care for
a spear of celery

and a cold sunny
afternoon’s three wasted
wishes we will build

new bird houses and
they will come back
three days they cried

circling the emptiness
where their hedge had stood
where they had nested for years

and that was just one group