Joyce Nower’s
latest book of poetry, published by Avranches Press, is The Qin Warriors and Other Poems (2003). Poetry and prose have appeared, or are scheduled to appear, in Raven Chronicles, Earth’s Daughters, The American Poetry Journal, kaleidowhirl, and The National Poetry Review.
Joyce also writes a column of poetry criticism for the The Alsop Review.
—Back to Work Poetry Contents—
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Tomatoes and Tomato Cages
Not Time—this poem is not about it—
and it’s not about Death or Loss.
My face is flushed from the sun
and my ears buzz with stillness.
It’s about tomatoes and tomato cages,
metal mesh in three six-foot bins
with spikes to grip the earth,
so as not to blow over in the wind.
My arms, lifting mesh to bend
and secure, harden.
It’s about manure forked into the dirt.
A zesty mulch tools a garden.
It’s about cisterns, sealed clay pots
dug into strategic spots.
I conjure roots
sucking through tendril straws.
It’s about the neighbor next door
broadcasting maxims:
Plant too early, danger of frost.
Too late, by fall, spindly stems.
Me on all fours
using hands as trowels.
Plant just right, you taste sun,
she said, in the red fruit core.
It’s about refilling the vessel
with silence and breath.
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