by Elaine Greene Weisburg
An optimistic kindly lady
just put in some yummy hostas.
Doesn’t she know it’s our favorite thing?
We’ll leave her the boxwood–
that’ll outlast her
and the poisonous daffodils
brightening her spring.
But moving right past her
we’ll claim all the tulips,
the roses, the daylilies, peonies,
phlox…
Until she surrenders,
this lady
rocks.
Elaine Greene Weisburg spent about twenty years each at House & Garden (Conde Nast) and House Beautiful (Hearst) as design reporter and features editor, eventually editing a memoir column and two memoir anthologies.