In the cast-offs of the yard shred
buds from root as Father’s harvesting taught
you remove unwanted/unuseful/unbountiful
and lob them over your brother bent
near the fist of a dark pond.
If you prune back his long reach
re-cultivate the field of his attention
despite his blooming silence
perhaps there will be something
necessary that remains.
When a blight chokes
his growing season early,
dismiss his withering
convince yourself nothing dies
if there are parts left rooted.
Instead
try again
let what
is witnessed
become perennial.
DC Restaino is a writer and editor living in London, UK. His writing has appeared online and in print at Funicular Magazine, Horizon Magazine, Outcrop Poetry, Thread Magazine, Mulberry Lit, and elsewhere, and is forthcoming from First Page, Mnenotope Magazine, and Michigan Quarterly Review. He was a 2024/2025 emerging writing fellow at the London Library, and a current PhD candidate with funding from LAHP at KCL.
