The Cauliflower
I wanted to be a cauliflower,
all brains and ears,
thinking on the origin of gardens
and the divinity of him
who carefully binds my leaves.
With my blind roots touched
by the songs of the worms,
and my rough throat throbbing
with strange, vegetable sounds,
perhaps I'd feel the parting stroke
of a butterfly's wing ...
Not like my cousins, the cabbages,
whose heads, tightly folded,
see and hear nothing of this world,
dreaming only on the yellow
and green magnificence
that is hardening within them.
by John
Haines
I am not a vegetarian because I
love animals; I’m a vegetarian because I hate plants.
Whitney
Brown
vegetables
A Vegetation to
Be Read by the Parsnip
Aubergine aubergine
Lettuce pray for the marrow
For no one radishes the end
We have all cucumbered our unworthy chives
With foul swedes
It ill beetroots us to publicly sprout pea
For the endive of our fennels
None escapes the cabbage of thyme
Even the wisest sage comes to a spinach
Celery celery I say unto you
This is the cauliflower
When salsifiers all
Artichoke and kale.
by B.C. Leale
