An Organic Union
By Benjamin Major
Whenever I'm with you
I feel like a newly crushed garlic.
The outer sheath has cracked,
My true essence is revealed.
Every peeling of a garlic clove,
Every snipping of fresh thyme,
Each olive, each pine kernel,
Brings me closer to union with you.
A newly crushed garlic releases its scent,
What a delight, it fills a kitchen with joy!
Chives recently picked from the garden
Are chopped and the aroma wafts about
Sending us into a giddy trance.
We become one with the ingredients in this way,
Whirling around, chopping this, peeling that.
An organic union emerges.
A good farmer knows what season to plant her crops.
She knows the ideal time to grow this or that.
She knows about the rain, the cycles of the moon,
How they affect the soil and the growing roots.
Remember you too were growing once.
Someone’s hand fed and watered you,
Shielded you from the environment
Or exposed you to it at their will.
Now you’re out of the field.
You're cooking. What for?
Let us keep an eye on the moon and the rain.
Let us watch what we do to our environment.
Because at the end of the day,
It’s our children who have
To lodge their roots
Like garlics
And grow
In it.