For Donna, sitting in a classroom

I think that I shall never know
The time to watch my flowers grow
Nor know the days’ bright slow parade
From sun’s great rise through dusky shade.

I feel like I shall never see
The warmest sun’s bright rays on me
For here I sit in class again
Aloof from sun, removed from rain.

I seed, instead, a mind that yearns
To grasp the food it needs to learn
I grasp these words with hands that see
The future, slow unveiled to me.

My home and garden fallow lie
I greet them, evening’s shadows nigh
While seated in these classroom rows
My inner garden slowly grows.