Old Man and His Garden

Yellow Daisy

ImpatiensPurple flowers

The Garden

Across the road a garden grew,

And bent among the flowers;

A spare old man stooped to his task,

Or he sat and dreamed for hours.

He had slaved away his early youth,

In a pharmacy day and night;

A pallid drudge year in, year out,

He was starve for color and light.

He had no time for romance,

He grew to shun mankind ;

Too stingy to spend emotion,

He closed his heart and mind.

He reaped the fruits of frustration,

In the dull round of care;

A life out of doors, the learned man said,

Might bring surprise from despair.

The gay nusturtiums stirred his heart'

Velvet dahlias woke his pride;

The roses he loved like children,

The lily was his bride.

He left this mortal plane long since,

But the garden calls him still;

He walks there when the moon is low,

A bent form, dim and chill.

(F S Livingstone)

Gambar atas dan tengah diambil di nursery bunga di tempatku: Daisy kuning dan bunga impatiens. Keduannya banyak ditanam di tepi jalan dan garden di Cameron Highlands dan selalunya bunganya berwarna pink atau merah.

Gambar bawah: Nampak pokok ni tumbuh di tepi longkang di bawah pohon cemumak dekat porch rumahku. Bukan ditanam tetapi sejanis rumpair yang tumbuh bersama pokok semalu dan rumput-rumput lain. Walaupun ianya tak ada nilai komersil tetapi bentuk bunga dan warnanya menarik, pasti ada gunanya tapi aku yang tak tahu. Oh ya...... kesiannya pakcik dalam poem ni.

Bekerja siang malam tapi banyak yang dia miss dalam kehidupan. Tapi akhirnya dapat juga dia menikmati sedikit keindahan alam ciptaan Tuhan walaupun seketika cuma.