From Interview With a Farmer

Sweet Corn

"People who garden have hope for the future.
You can't wait for a seed if you don't."
So said the old woman
after the fire, tending flowers
with sore hands and moving slowly.
At seventy eight, the time might
be right to move.  Seattle maybe.
Or Portland.
	        Rabbits ate
my tomatoes but I garden nonetheless --
My corn is taller than I am
and I'd give some away as a manner of boasting
but there's so little -- and corn is corn
after all.  They can eat what I bought
and leave for me the sweet seeds
of what in May was the future, which I eat
only grilled, with salt and butter.

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