Riehlife Poem of the Day: Carol Coffee Reposa’s “Vegetable Love in Texas”

Vegetable Love in Texas
by Carol Coffee Reposa
Texas Poetry Calendar: 2008

Farmers say
There are two things
Money can’t buy:
Love and homegrown tomatoes.

I pick them carefully.
They glow in my hands, shimmer
Beneath their patina of warm dust
Like talismen.

Perhaps they are.
Summer here is a crucible
That melts us down
Each day,

The sky a sheet of metal
Baking cars, houses, streets.

Out in the country
Water-starved maize

Shrivels into artifacts.
A desiccated cache
Of shredded life.
Farmers study archeology

In limp straw hats.
But still I have
This feeble harvest,
Serendipity in red:

Red like a favorite dress,
Warm like a dance,
Lush like a kiss long desired,
Firm like a vow, the hope of rain.

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One Comment

  1. the the author words used words Red like a favorite dress to dihow red they are and I pick them carefully.They glow in my hands, shimmer Beneath their patina of warm dust Like talismen to describe the tomato and this shows how much they like there tomatos

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