Previously Published by Editor Miriam Sagan in Red Dragonfly

Raamesh Gowri Raghavan

Generation gap

Mother gave me a patch of garden when I was eleven. I ploughed it with a trowel and seeded it with dahlias, geraniums, marigolds and chrysanthemums. I watered it everyday and watched with delight as they began to sprout. Then one day I saw a new plant, with tiny bright green leaves. Mother didn’t know what it was. Se called it a weed. She told me to remove it. I didn’t. I thought it was pretty. Prettier still, when it had tiny, yellow flowers. And then there were other plants – short ones, tall ones, prickly ones, with white, yellow, even red flowers. One flower had petals that were violet outside and yellow inside. Mother called them all weeds.

The geraniums and dahlias and chrysanthemums didn’t seem to grow well. They were short and had small flowers, not like mother’s patch which had big, pretty ones. Mother said it was because I had let weeds grow. But I had lots of little flowers – like little me. Mother said I had grown a weed garden. So she took it away. But it was a nice garden while it lasted.

new guests:
gramps again on how he slew
ten jerries

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About the Author

An editor for the online e-zine Cafe Haiku, Dr Brijesh Raj has been writing haikai forms for over ten years. His work has featured in online haikai journals, e zines and anthologies. He is a practising companion animal veterinarian and teaches Tai Chi with wife Kashmira Raj.