phototropism

that autumn nature showed its force and he awakened in an empty house,   

cold and shadowed.

and jagged tree limbs ripped from trees rested on his lawns and sidewalks, 

terrible and breathtaking.

he dug deep holes and planted bulbs before the snow came,   

silent 
and the color of bones.

and his first tulips grew, the blossoms stopping small inches above the brown,  

raising toward sunlight.