a little boy knocked impatiently at my front door. he had accidentally hit his ball over the wall and into our back yard– and asked if he could retrieve it. i opened the gate and let him in– and walked through the yard for the first time in ages. in the background i could hear the little boy’s father scolding him for losing his toy over the wall yet again– but i was lost looking at what was left of our yard. the ponds were emptied– the fish donated to the local temple, the plants brown and dying from the lack of care, the shrived kumquats on the tree that i once loved. the soothing sound of running water was gone– there was no longer any need for the waterfall or the pond filters.
i did see something that i had never noticed before– a lone pomegranate hanging from a thin, brown branch in the midst of the dried up plants. it was split open so that the bright crimson seeds inside looked like they were about to fall out. i should have taken a picture of it– the next time i return to the house it will most likely be gone. shriveled away or picked at by some bird. i expect that this will be the fate of everything else in the yard– my dad’s precious bonsai trees will disappear, the fruit on the trees will fall and litter the grass, the water plants around the pond will collapse into a sad heap on the ground. …and i will have nothing left but fleeting memories of sitting on the swing with my dad, chatting about nothing and dreaming up plans to make the yard even more beautiful than it already was.
