"Goodbye to All That" by Steven Deutsch

Goodbye to All That

Yesterday
a poppy
I planted years ago
bloomed cream and crimson.

Stunning in its regal robes
it lorded over the roses—
golden goddesses.
But only for a day.

This garden has given
a million hours of pleasure.
Really, what is there to life?
Dirt and sweat

and muscles that ache
with honest effort.
Moving now
to a small apartment

for the golden years,
I will turn
the keys over
to a young couple

with kids and careers
and no time
for gardens.
I might have sold in winter,

but that would be cowardly.
I sit in my lawn chair
one last evening
and try to explain.

Steven Deutsch

Steve Deutsch lives in State College, PA. Some of his recent publications have or will appear in Panoply, MacQueens Quinterly, Santa Clara Review, Sangam, Poetica Review, Lothlorien, Muddy River Poetry Review, Silver Birch, Backchannels, Red Weather, The Drabble, Sheila-na-gig, The Rush, Pirene’s Fountain, Evening Street Review, and Schuylkill Valley Journal. He is poetry editor of Centered Magazine. He was nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. His chapbook, Perhaps You Can, was published in 2019 by Kelsay Press, and his full length book, Persistence of Memory, followed in 2020, also with Kelsay. He published Going, Going, Gone, in 2021.

Headshot: Karen Deutsch

Photo Credit: Staff