BOTANY UNDER BOMB LIGHT
I plant my thyme where the crater cracked
Where the sun peeks in through the ceiling slat
With a coffee can spade and a ladle for rain
I'm coaxing up lettuce on a windowpane
It's botany under bomb light
Petunias blooming by flare flare night
We prune with gloves and hum to the seeds
While the rad count rises and the marigold feeds
My carrots glow but they sure do crunch
And my beans tap Morse at a quarter past lunch
The dandelions duck when the sirens scream
But they pop back up in my fallout dream
It's botany under bomb light
Where compost sings and the turnips bite
We dig with spoons we mulch with grace
We're the bunker bells of the garden race
The violets bloom in filtered air
The ivy climbs the bunker stairs
And when the world forgets to be kind
A sunflower grows in my radioactive mind
It's botany under bomb light
With blossom breath and chlorophyll fright
We sow with song
We reap with pride
In the blasted earth
We bloom inside