My Mother's Evergreen Garden Poem by Marvellous Sibani Zondi

‘’If you don’t water my garden,

Don’t expect to even eat a carrot from it’’.

To someone that might be a call

To get up and grab the watering can.

I have heard that song several times,

To an extent that it did not pinch me in any way.





To me, this was just my mother being herself.

At some point she would vow to not give me money,

But after an hour I would crumble at her feet

And she would pick me up with a rand.




I have to admit, I was not an ideal

Humble and obedient 10-year old,

Might you say I was rude?

You will not be wrong.




The best she could do to punish me

Was by switching off the TV, even so,

At midday, what show is there to watch anyway?

Days would grow into months,

Soon after, harvest time would grace us.




I was the first to know when the vegetables were good to go.

By then, my mother would have long

Forgotten she ever said I was not going to eat a thing from her garden.

I was convinced my mother had amnesia.

Until I grew to realize it’s not the garden

I would refuse to irrigate that she only had.

Somewhere within her heart,

There is an evergreen garden that always had love for me

Despite the heartbreak I would cause.