“Sowing seeds”

I’m providing end-of-life care on my window sill.
May these seeds sown
in scrubbed-up plastic pots of compost
rest in peace
and rise in glorious juicy ripe tomatoes
fulfilling packaged promises of Golden Sunrise,
Summer Sensation, Gardener’s Delight.

Lord, sow me in your soil. Let
my frequent falls to earth be into your earth.
Be the answer to my questioning roots, delving
after nutrients. So my every death to self
gives birth a shoot, budding, burgeoning,
yielding golden fruit. Let me
be the Gardener’s delight.

Clare Bryden “Sowing seeds”, Theology, Volume 128, Issue 3, 23 May 2025.
Poetry. (2025). Theology, 128(3), 207-210. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040571X251335515 (Original work published 2025)