on pixabay
Daffodils and Dandelions
My perfectly planned daffodil bed
began getting stalks bursting through early spring soil.
Home Depot didn’t have the sale yet,
but we needed the bagged mulch to
compliment the soon to bud beauties.
It didn’t matter that in a week it’d be a dollar cheaper.
Bags of mulch poured carefully between growing green stalks
left us with the perfectly curated yard,
something out of Home and Garden.
A few days later I noticed the green winks
between daffodils,
intruders!
Sure enough, the serrated leaves pushed through and there they were,
Dandelions,
soon to show that
yellow mane and then
evaporate to white cotton on the air.
I diligently plucked them,
but there’s only so much time.
Soon the imposter,
something yellow
with a green stem,
but something unwanted was beginning to
overtake what we’d put there.
Pesticides and weeding can only do so much
against a plant they brought over from
Europe because of its vitality and versatility.
Soon, I began to give up; the commitment was too great.
The yellow heads began to shift
to white and I knew soon the wind
would take them away and my
beautifully manicured lawn and garden
beds would be populated with weeds.
All of this prep for a yard to be envied
and I wonder if it isn’t better to have a yard full
of dandelions than daffodils anyways.
Date at a Coffee Shop
A coffee shop is a pretty traditional first date
and we all know donuts go best with coffee
Now, make sure you offer to buy one,
they’ll say yes to be polite
or because who doesn’t like a donut?
What do you think,
what’s their order
and are you really thinking back to psych class at this point?
Surely, they aren’t an old-fashioned person,
that’d be a telltale sign right there.
Maybe chocolate, they like something rich.
What about something with sprinkles,
do they like a little flash in their life, maybe a little sparkle?
How about a filled donut, someone that likes surprises,
or are they hiding the best parts of themselves…or the worst?
Really you’re just over analyzing your own pick at this point,
making sure you don’t pick the wrong one
and give off a bad vibe
and ruin the shot at date number two because of your donut choice.
Unwanted Wish list Items
Stored items are sorted across benches, tables and
chairs, wherever they’ll fit these days
when they used to have their spot.
I wonder when we needed that metal
candle holder and if it
was once brass weathered over time
or if it’s just aluminum painted to look like brass.
I see the glittering glass mugs from
when we tripped to northern Vermont
and I got on that craft beer kick,
a handful probably saw suds at one point in their life.
There are the bikes
that took trips on trails
or meandered down city streets,
still fit to ride,
but who has time for that?
Each item was on a wish list,
something prioritized and pulling pennies
from a bank that doesn’t have them.
Now a relic long forgotten,
only clutter in our eyes.
“Do we really need this?”
“Sell it!”
I’m sure the cash we garner from the sale will
float towards another needed wish list item.
Bio: Matt McGuirk teaches and lives with his wife and two daughters in New Hampshire. He was a BOTN 2021 nominee, is now a regular contributor at Fevers of the Mind and has poems and stories published in 50+ literary magazines with 100+ accepted pieces. His debut collection, Daydreams, Obsessions, Realities with Alien Buddha Press isavailable on Amazon, linked in the bio and also on his website.Follow him on Twitter: @McguirkMatthew and Instagram: @mcguirk_matthew.
Website: http://linktr.ee/McGuirkMatthew Daydreams, Obsessions, Realities: https://www.amazon.com/Daydreams-Obsessions-Realities-hybrid-collection/dp/B09M5KY8HH/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Fevers of the Mind 
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