Supreme

In my mother’s garden
The soil is rich
Some seasons, it doesn’t even require water
But it produces fruit
In my mother’s garden
There are roses and African violets
And there are weeds, too
Such beautiful weeds
In my mother’s garden there is always a scent of home
And there are thorns
Shields that have protected her
And sometimes made it hard to reach her, to touch her
And in my mother’s garden there are seeds
Planted by her mama and her mama and her mama
This garden has sustained us
This garden has survived capture and trading across oceans
This garden has survived Detroit winters
At times, this garden has not been seen or told it was beautiful
And this garden has given away nourishment without the return of hands to tend to it
This garden hasn’t always known tenderness or trust or care
But the garden
My mother’s garden is always there
And my mother’s garden has pruned me, a rose
Who now waters her garden and mine
My mother’s garden is the covenant
My mother is the Supreme
And her magic flows through the garden
And through mine
And through me
I am the returned hands who’ve come to tend to her garden
I bring the tenderness and trust and care
I heal this land
I remind it of its glory and its majesty
That it is Eden
Heaven on Earth
I call my mother’s garden by her name
Home
What it has always been
What it will always be
For those who search for it
In my mother’s garden
There hasn’t always been space to ask for help
Permission to simply be
I give that to the garden
The garden gives me power in return
My mother’s garden is the covenant
My mother is the Supreme
And her magic flows through the garden
And through mine
And through me
I dug the soil in my mother’s garden
I found pain and suffering
I found flowers afraid to blossom
Plants afraid to grow
Shame
Foremothers who didn’t know how to water her
But I dug the soil in my mother’s garden
And I found resilience, too
And love
And hope
I found joy
Power
To build
To birth
To be
I dug the soil in my mother’s garden
And I found my own
And my children who I now water
From the Supreme’s Source
My mother’s garden lacks nothing
In all ways
It is abundant