by Natalie Brickajlik
a human among humans
some might think it’s a sad story, but it’s beautiful.
Day after day, another subway ride to another neglected community
Long stretches of hypervigilance and tight-belliedness
beauty seems hard to find, and quietness is just for the storybooks.
time for tea to refocus your tired, blurry eyes
noticing tiny, jagged, concrete cracks (summer steam and smelly sidewalks)
blooming with chicory, or burnweed, or fuzzy spearmint from a nearby family garden.
an evening primrose to tease your senses
a meadow of Brownsville mugwort to pause and (lucidly) dream about where an apothecary should live
(your own thing)
garden tenders and hungry neighbors come to look, too
a newfound patch of hope and sparkly pollinators
(it’s a big, scary world)
to find new friends everywhere, little pops of color and shape and hardiness in the chaos
allowing the journey to just journey
(as I grasp for an anchor)
to admire the needle point perfection of a passiflora or deep teeth of a dandelion leaf
to be a bumble bee in a swath of blooming catnip
I land peacefully.
Natalie Brickajlik is a second-year student at ArborVitae. She manages therapeutic horticulture programs with The Horticultural Society of NY, providing workshops that nurture the plant to people connection and helping to strengthen lower income communities across New York City.