Garden Prep   We do it every year — to celebrate the rites of spring, the return of the weather called life, the coming of summer’s heat   and insistent green, we kneel in the mud and mumble our petitions to the great spirit of the garden — we promise blood   and tell ourselves we’re helping, and the breath of time insists we clear out last year’s crud, decay, and everything that looks like death.     © Michael Fleming Brattleboro, Vermont May 2019