Gardening

Mama
I grew people today
Sowed them row on row
Cultivated their little bodies
Caressed their hair, talked to them in a
soft voice
so they may grow tall and able-bodied
ready for war

I grew them with machine guns
programmed into each man's bundle of
double helixes
like a mugful of dried magnolias
Plopped them into the ground, one by one
interred for the next nineteen months
in the womb of the earth
full of nutrients, juicy worms
A warmth diffusing from the center's sun

I water them delicately, give them a cool shower
and watch the water dribble down their
naked bodies
and into the sullen mouth of the belly button
Between the bend at the elbow
and past the knees, leaving trails of
goose bumps
Their slender bodies shiver between the shoulder blades.