Dorothy Coates brings lavender buds
To sew into sachets with ribbons and bows
Written directions, birthday girl wishes
She'll not stay for tea, she has gardens to grow

When the faithful go by in their Sunday best
Bearing souls for an hour of devotion
She's tending her church by a chapel-grey fountain
A choir of foxgloves peals with emotion

Evergreen lady, kneeling, discerning the flower 
That is worthy from a tangle of weeds
Embracing the earth with a prayer and a promise 
A tulip, an internal logic, a creed

The watering can bows its head with a drizzle --
The drought never ends -- over seedlings in rows
A cycle of life at the altar of nature
A dandelion weeder, a dibber, a hoe

And she strides from the turn of a century onward
The seasons replace her in a stop-motion show
Miss Dorothy Coates is a memory suspended
In the amber of autumn's afternoon glow

Dorothy Coates

I'm a pianist/singer/songwriter based in Glasgow. My debut album, CLOSURE is coming soon.

Dorothy Coates

Maria Quinn