Charles A. Swanson teaches dual enrollment English in a new Academy for Engineering and Technology, serving the Southside region of Virginia.  Frequently published in the Appalachian region, he is a Frequent Contributor to the online poetry magazine Songs of Eretz, http://www.songsoferetz.com/. The poem “Succulents” is a part of a poem cycle that focuses on life on an Appalachian farmstead. The plants on the porch, though needing little care, nevertheless betrayed a love of beauty.