Coffee cools in a chipped enamel mug
Steam rises slow like a harbor fog
Antenna wire cuts the quiet air
Beetles drill holes in the wooden chair
I tune the dial to the weeds and vines
Where bindweed chokes the tomato twine
Signal blooms in the dirt and loam
This overgrown patch is my only home
Soldering iron rests on a hot brick
Flux smoke curls thin and wicked quick
Rhubarb leaves spread wide as a sail
Radio hums a low green tale
I tune the dial to the weeds and vines
Where bindweed chokes the tomato twine
Signal blooms in the dirt and loam
This overgrown patch is my only home
Neighbor's dog barks at the squirrel patrol
Fence post leans where the frost took hold
Knob turned slow for the weather report
Rain coming in from the western port
Thirty years I scanned the horizon line
Now I scan the soil for a sign
The lamp is cold but the set runs warm
Different storms but the same old form
Tomato stakes snapped by the wind last night
Tape the split with a strip of white
Frequency drifts on the forty meter band
Voice from the mainland crosses the sand
I tune the dial to the weeds and vines
Where bindweed chokes the tomato twine
Signal blooms in the dirt and loam
This overgrown patch is my only home
Sun sets low on the paint-peeled shed
Firefly blinks where the wire is fed
Logbook closed with a rubber band
Green noise singing me back to land
I tune the dial to the weeds and vines
Where bindweed chokes the tomato twine
Signal blooms in the dirt and loam
This overgrown patch is my only home
Static garden where the signal belongs
Dial glows dim in the gathering dark
Static garden does its part
