Harvest

 

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I gather the last tomatoes

a few hanging stubbornly green,

there’s place on the sunny sill

where they can take their chance.

 

As I harvest, a golden blizzard

pulses, swirling around my boots,

broad leaves intersperse the slim

in a chaotic unfathomable kaleidoscope

shackling my shins

some getting caught in my hatband.

 

Here, in this mesmeric cauldron

there is a gentle but primeval ferocity, where

I fear I could become lost, hidden from view

my skin turned to bark, blood to sap

limbs to boughs in final rest

between the damson, apple and the gauge

 

© Graham Sherwood 10/2018

One thought on “Harvest

  1. our tomatoes are still going strong but I had to buy a cucumber the other day. I’ve made green tomato chutney before but no-one liked it so never again. Harvest time, the turn into autumn, lighting the first fire in the woodburner – all special moments in the yearly calendar focusing our minds on the passing seasons and how one day we will become one with the soil. Lots to take from this lovely poem Graham.

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