Easter

This piece is about doing the best you can.  And also a little about bullies.

EASTER

There was once a garden shady and green

Probably the nicest garden you've ever seen

A gardener toiled to keep it that way

putting in the hours each working day.

There were trees and shrubs and flowers as well

easy on the eye and fragrant to smell.

But in this garden that was pleasant and bright

Stood a tomb that was grim and dark as night

The tomb was empty its door gaped wide

waiting for a body to be placed inside

Waiting..waiting for a grim dark day

For someone to die and be brought to lay

inside the tomb with a stone for a door

damp and musty smelling, sodden earthy floor.

Life went on in the garden outside

the old boy planted flowers

and watched them grow with pride

one day he brought some bulbs

to plant in a certain spot 
the plot was shady

for it didn't get a lot

of sun, it was off the beaten track

and soil fit for bulbs, the corner sadly lacked.

When the gardener had gone the bulbs looked all around

one of them sniffed, said; "This ain't my sort of ground

my breed of bulb is used to having pride of place.

No one will come here to see my golden face!"

"I quite agree" spoke up a nearby friend

"This soil is awful it really is the end!

I'm used to conditions superior to this,

so dank and dark!" he said "The sun I'll really miss.

"Why look at that hideous bulb sitting over there!

I really can't stay here to grow and share

the same soil as her! She's dried up like a prune!

I shall have to move and it must be very soon

or my roots will sprout and I'll be here for good

come on, let's move! I know that we should!"

The bulb he'd referred to so rudely, as a prune

said; "I think you should stay here to grow into plants and bloom

the gardener I'm sure always does what's right

he put us here to make this corner bright"

"Pooh!" said the others "This may be right for you

in fact, a bulb like you shouldn't be in view!

We're quite sure if you ever struggle into flower

your bloom will be sickly not beautiful like ours!"

So off went the others bouncing on their ways

Off to find a place where they'd be seen and praised

The prune-like bulb sadly stayed alone

Snuggled into the soil too sad to weep or moan.

The days passed by the bulbs began to grow

The gardener came by to water them and hoe.

The prune-like bulb grew like all the others

but not in the sun like her snooty brothers.

The sunlit bulbs often looked across to sneer

called out insults would laugh and jeer

"Just look at that bloom! Oh what a sight!

Doesn't she look such a perfect fright!"

The bulb in the corner sadly hung her head

and tried not to mind what they cruelly said.

"I'll try to be the best bulb the gardener's ever sown"

she said to herself as she grew on alone.

One dark night came the noise of tramping feet

Along the garden paths that the gardener kept so neat

Sounds of weeping and the grate of solid stone

then a silence fell in the dark and lowering dome

A twilight lasted the garden seemed forlorn

Then three days later There came a blinding dawn

A figure emerged from the grim tomb of stone

A figure that moved through the garden walking all alone

Bringing such a morning never seen before

No corner where he walked was in darkness any more.

He strolled about then stopped and quietly spoke

"What a wonderful flower!" and his hand stretched out to stroke

the petals of the flower our lonely bulb had grown
The bulb bent towards the light, all darkness round had flown
"Thank you little bulb" said Jesus for growing in the dark
you have lighted up this corner, and made it much less stark
And Jesus went his way not seeing the other flowers
and the lonely bulb, stood taller and remembered her finest hour.