The Dueling Garden

by Lindsay Burak

Bamboo swords plucked from neighbouring

gardens gallantly cut off the heads

of dandelion puffs, which these days

are themselves plucked by my gloved

hands and sweat and knees in the dirt

with bamboo poles planted among the tomato stalks.

In the back of my closet

among the pantsuits

and boxes of files and tools and seashells and smeared-pencil doodles and dead-battery toys,

a pair of bamboo swords

await their Arthur

to pull them

from the cusp.