avocado injured

 avocado pit saved

pierced with toothpicks

and set into water

to see if it would grow

it did, and flourished

year after year

until now when i put it

beside the east window

where days of eighty and ninety

degrees before i realized it

needed to be in greater shade

have left one stalk showing

mottled, yellowy, translucent

leaf after leaf

i’m not good at husbandry