Flowering vines and weeds snake around the abandoned garden beds

The bushes don unkempt hair styles

Thin branches reaching farther into the sky

Than they’ve ever been allowed before

Like worshiping arms wide open mid gospel

My neglect translates to their freedom

The grass battles with clover and dead nettle,

blooms peppered around the yard

Like late spring confetti

A Japanese maple throws out sparse maroon leaves in rough patches, like gasping breaths

before resigning to its forced, final slumber

Rabbits have found refuge in the tall grass

They praise the broken weed eater

Which provided them this sweet fortune

Babies hidden will soon frolic among the fern fronds

They’ll feast on the forgotten pepper plants

Make waste of the tomatoes and cucumbers

A pest potluck theirs for the taking

This deserted yard their own utopia

Suddenly I feel less guilty

About letting the lawn go