You darken as my knife slices
\nblushing at what you become.
\nI save your thick leaves
\nand purple skin
\nto feed the cows.<\/p>\n
A peasant guest at any meal
\nyou agree to hide in fragrant stew
\nor gleam nakedly
\nin butter and chives.<\/p>\n
Though your seeds are tiny
\nyou grow with fierce will
\ngrateful for poor soil and dry days,
\nheave up from the ground
\nunder sheltering stalks
\nto sweeten with the frost.<\/p>\n
Tonight we take you into our bodies
\nas if we do you a favor\u2014
\nletting your molecules
\nbecome a higher being,
\none that knows music and art.<\/p>\n
But you share with us
\nwhat makes you a rutabaga.
\nThrough you we eat sunlight,
\ntaste the soil\u2019s clamoring mysteries,
\ngain your seed\u2019s perfect might.<\/p>\n
\u201cRutabaga\u201d by\u00a0Laura Grace Weldon,<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Tending<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Aldrich Press, 2013). \u00a9 Laura Grace Weldon. Presented here by poet submission.<\/p>\n Laura Grace Weldon\u2019s happy childhood was marred by the presence of alligators under her bed. No one ever proved they weren\u2019t real.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday, June 8, 2020 \u201cThrough you we eat sunlight\u201d I had another poem queued up for today, but Laura Grace Weldon\u2019s hymn to a Rutabaga took my imagination by storm. \u00a0No . . . perhaps not a storm, perhaps an … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2016\/08\/rutabaga.jpg\")
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