Backyard rows bear familiar names:
potato, lettuce, pepper, leek,
tomato, carrot, onion, beet.
Market bins are stacked in simple terms:
cherries, apples, kiwis, grapes,
pecans, lemons, melons, dates.
Bouquets hold words from winter dreams:
anemone, verbena, lavender,
dianthus, cosmos, hyacinth.
-Raymond Byrnes
Recent poems by Raymond Byrnes have appeared in Third Wednesday, catheXis, Shot Glass Journal, All Roads Will Lead You Home, Better Than Starbucks, Panoply, Typishly, Waters Deep: A Great Lakes Poetry Anthology and elsewhere. He lives in Virginia.