I hope you are enjoying your tomatoes and looking forward to melons!
Heirloom Tomato
By Natalie Staples
The green vine digs deep and pierces its fruit,
shapes it like dough,
sends a crease down the middle,
skin is stretched like a child’s cheeks,
full of pent up air. It hangs
in its own teepee cradled in bamboo.
I know that kind of love.
I was working with my knees pressed
into the soil when a farmer told me
that mulching was like tucking in a baby.
Pulling the covers of hay over its vines,
sometimes discovering a tiny watermelon.
But it’s a little more than that—
the crunch of fresh straw in the pitch fork
bits of it sticking to my legs in the heat
we slip and slide, it’s so new
I can’t shake off the feeling of wanting to roll
all of the straw fluffed and ready,
waiting for a horse to walk through
that cozy feeling at the close of the day
when the sweat is scraped and the pony
is left grazing, the lead line drags along grass
he wanders in for a bucket of sweet feed
nosing his way back to the barn
gone quiet except for contented munching.
No comments:
Post a Comment