IVY

I am wheeled into a garden,
inhale the fresh air.
All my senses 
take in my surroundings.
I feel the sun 
warm on my skin, 
the shade of a tree 
cool and rustling.
I smell the flowers in bloom 
and the freshly tilled soil 
that grows veggies 
for the harvest.
I hear the birdsongs- 
a symphony in the trees.
Every sound and sense 
is a new layer 
that gently covers me in ivy 
until I have become the flowers 
and the birdsong, 
the leaves and the air.
I am one with nature.
And I have become 
something new.
Something that the garden grew.

Beth Fornier is a native of Massachusetts and a former high school counselor. At the age of twenty-six she was suddenly stricken and diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a severe neurological condition. This left her paralyzed and blind. She now lives in a long-term care facility in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She enjoys audiobooks, painting, and singing. Music and the memory of sunflowers lift her spirits. Beth has had six poems published in Oragami Poems Project.