my mom kept pieces of my wedding bouquet ivy
after my wedding, brought it home to Florida with her
grew some down there, gave me a small pot of ivy
to grow myself
and with me, the ivy didn’t have much luck
and most of it died
and I had to put it in another pot
with other plants
and I could only keep a small part of the ivy alive
and she kept the ivy
and it grew majestically for for
in a pot at a window sill, outside in the shade
and every time I would visit mom in Florida
I’d see this beautiful ivy from my wedding
that she managed to keep thriving at her home
but then again, she could make any plant grow
we’d joke that she could put a rock in the ground
and some sort of plant would arise
I don’t know what she did,
but she’d grow palm trees from seed
(a palm tree she started is in my house now,
growing all the way up to
and curling around at the sky light,
the only place in my house that tree can fit)
she’d grow pineapple plants, herbs,
a billion other types of plants would flourish around her house
well, I’ve come back to visit Florida
now that my mother has passed
and I was on the phone with my husband,
at home in Illinois
and I passed that ivy
that she always kept flourishing
and saw that most of it had died
I’m sure it needed water,
no one is there to watch over it now
and I said,
“mom’s ivy plant is almost dead”
and then I pause and said,
“mom always kept everything alive”
