Houseplants in the garden

The houseplants sit awkwardly in the garden, like tourists at some raffish foreign port.

A gust of wind is enough to tip them over in their ceramic pots.

It rains, & they hardly know how to drip.

Insects avoid their glossy, odorless leaves.

After dark, under the stars, they are the only things still shining.

They send up flower stalks one week before the frost.