define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true);{"id":17,"date":"2010-01-01T09:05:21","date_gmt":"2010-01-01T17:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/judykaber.com\/?p=17"},"modified":"2010-01-01T09:05:21","modified_gmt":"2010-01-01T17:05:21","slug":"lettuce-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/judykaber.com\/?p=17","title":{"rendered":"Lettuce woman"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the farmers\u2019 market this morning
\nI saw the young woman who sold me lettuce last week-
\na head of buttercrunch that she pulled from a bag
\nas I stared at the limp loose leaved plants
\nshe had on display.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to keep them happy in this weather,\u201d
\nshe told me, smiling, holding the head
\ncradled in her hand, an offering.\u00a0 Certainly I accepted.<\/p>\n

I imagine her back curved like a slender sunflower stalk
\npulled down with the weight of its blossoming, the flower
\na confusion of gold, as she tends her garden.<\/p>\n

With regret she roots among the feathery shoots of carrot,
\nplaying goddess, plucking small plants to die in the sun
\nso the others may grow long and plump and tender.<\/p>\n

This is the hard part, this weeding out,
\nnot the harvest, the shearing and pulling of maturity,
\nwhen sun-spilled hands reach out to fill up the basket.<\/p>\n

In my mind I see her life wrapped in the earth,
\nsmiling at her lover across a table, white dishes,
\ncornflowers, fire weed, asters, and always<\/p>\n

smiling, as today at her table, a tableau
\nwith fiddle in background.\u00a0 I can\u2019t meet
\nher eyes as I pass by looking for my beets,
\nwishing I had some need of her lettuce.<\/p>\n

Published in:
\nOff the Coast
\nSeptember 2007<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the farmers\u2019 market this morning I saw the young woman who sold me lettuce last week- a head of buttercrunch that she pulled from a bag as I stared at the limp loose leaved plants she had on display. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to keep them happy in this weather,\u201d she told me, smiling, holding the … <\/p>\n