A vine without a tree or fence
to climb will trail along the ground
until it finds a foothold
to launch its steep ascent.
But when a foothold can’t be found,
a trellis will do. And so I ripped
a dozen cedar strips to build a ladder
for our coral honeysuckle to scale.
Responding to a signal sent
some 90 million miles from sun to earth,
it started on its upward trek —
cell by cell, inch by inch, rung by rung —
clinging to this 6-foot ladder
on its quest to climb
from earth to sun.
