A Force of Nature

She didn’t know what she was 
nor did I, my father, nor his
But the world revolved around her
She was grounded
with all her scattered thoughts and prayers 
She was the center of a world that dreams
poorer without her
She was a garden full of wild seed and 
outrageous blossoms 
She was the forest that protected purple lady slippers 
She knew where the boundaries were,
and the spring which feeds the well
She was silly
and serious as stone
None caught within her sphere
ever escaped