A POEM FOR ESPAÑOLA FARMERS MARKET
Colorful, calloused hands
With earth under fingernails
Gritty dust on a sweaty brow
Overlooks eyes that survey gardens with pride
The weekly walk or short drive
To care for children grown from seed
Nurtured from the feminine held in the duality of our hearts
Learned languages from labors of love
That come from rustling corn stalks
Who ache for the song of their planting
The touch of weathered skin
The coolness of breath returned to the breath givers
All shared gratitude as milky kernels
Are pulled free from green mothers
And the circle is completed
A summer’s hard work is traded for sustenance
Crops begin the journey back to dust
Beneath the gaze of warm starlight
As leaves begin to feel the cold
Always there colors revealed
Awaiting their time to shine
For fruit to be picked
Chili’s gathered and admired
Given to neighbors and friends
In abundance of mutual love for communal culture
The wellness that radiates through shared exchanges
Blessed is the act of yellow orange squash given to grandmothers
Of saving seeds for the next generation
Calabacitas of caring
That holds the toil
Deep within the soil of our thoughts and intentions
Knowledge awaits the rest of a dormant cycle
The coming of the stories
Spoken in bodies well nurtured by another season.
Beata Tsosie-Peña (Sept. 2010)
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