Nine in the Garden
By Equality Rider Ryan Barnette
Photo Credit: Clinica Tepeyac
Nine of us walked into the garden,
first steps shifting the soil.
We stood between miniature mountain ridges of dirt
seemingly modeled from the Rocky Mountains surrounding us,
both sprinkled with green growth.
It was our duty to find the green and pull it,
it deemed a stifling weed,
and thus we the nine gods and goddesses who take and give life
according to the fruits we desire to spring from the Earth.
Clínica Tepeyac owned the land where we stood.
A garden in its own regard,
the Clínica was sun and water,
only offering that which increases life,
the light of education and water of care
to the many who entered its doors.
No human is a weed,
no community benefited by one uprooted, malnourished, tossed away.
We turned the soil, leaving a richness ready for the seed.
In a future we would never see, those from the Clínica would taste
and be nourished because of the work of our hands.
We left feeling good.
We left a garbage bin full of weeds.
The thing about Clínica Tepeyac is that it serves the uninsured,
the underserved. Many in the world overlook these.
Many in these plentiful states of America
uproot, malnourish, toss away
those who don’t have access to the same amount of sun,
same amount of water.
We all live on the same patch of Earth.
We share it.
Let us share the knowledge
that no one is a weed.
Nine of us walked into the garden,
first steps shifting the soil.
About the Blogger:
Ryan Barnette’s perfect day includes hot tea, a game of Catan, Japanese fiction, and increased justice for the disenfranchised.
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