Rosemary Nissen-Wade #3: Veranda Garden

Veranda Garden

My father grew cyclamen, primulas, and maidenhair fern

in rows of pots on a table in our enclosed veranda.

Every night he would water them, and give each one a turn

so they'd get the sun (through glass) evenly all round, a bit at a time.

He liked to display his cyclamen, primulas, and maidenhair fern

on the long, enclosed veranda outside the dining-room window

where we could watch them in their pretty profusion, and learn

how flowers loved both sun and water, seeing them thrive –

the delicate leaves of the maidenhair bobbing continuously up and down

as if in a breeze (but there was none). He would savour their names 

on his tongue, lovingly: cyclamen, primulas, and maidenhair fern.

I wanted to try the Fold, a form invented by Trinidad and Tobago poet Gillena Cox. Then I saw something that triggered this childhood memory.