Dorothy in Gardens

Vincent Hostak

June 7, 2026

If photos were the only evidence,

you’d think she was seldom anywhere but a garden.

There was more, of course:

a prized collection of buttons,

fine feathers from our infant crowns tied in locks,

a biscuit tin filled with letters I’ll never see.

They grow wisdom on upstate farms.

She gathered all she could.

She knew a wound was not the whole of a person,

but drew the person into it and

likewise, the person dressing the wound.

She taught Sunday school

and held a short-strapped Lucite handbag

brimming with band-aids.

In her garden photos she shapeshifts in sepia

from Country Mouse to Rita Hayworth.

Behind her cigarette and cat’s eye sunglasses

are many other truths. 

In those garden photos, delphinium and roses

leave nothing to mystery

and suddenly appear less remarkable.

Vincent Hostak is a writer and media producer from Texas now living with his family and faithful canine, Lola, near the Front Range of Colorado. His recently published poems are found in the journals The Dewdrop (Vanessa Able, Editor-In-Chief), Sonder Midwest, The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, and the Texas Poetry Assignment.  His contributions also appear in the anthologies The 30th Annual Poetry Ink Anthology (Moonstone Arts, Philadelphia, 2025), Lone Star Poetry, and The Senior Class-100 Poets on Aging (Lamar University Press, Laurence Musgrove, Editor). His podcast on classic and contemporary poetry, and the novel ways it reaches audiences, relaunches in 2026.