Tuesday, March 23, 2021

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Katie Snipes Lancaster

Word:
Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes. Psalm 119:12

Wisdom:
Farmers say
There are two things
Money can’t buy:
Love and homegrown tomatoes.

I pick them carefully.
They glow in my hands, shimmer
Beneath their patina of warm dust
Like talisman.

Perhaps they are.
Summer here is a crucible
That melts us down
Each day,

The sky a sheet of metal
Baking cars, houses, streets.

Out in the country
Water-starved maize

Shrivels into artifacts.
A desiccated cache
Of shredded life.
Farmers study archeology

In limp straw hats.
But still I have
This feeble harvest,
Serendipity in red:

Red like a favorite dress,
Warm like a dance,
Lush like a kiss long desired,
Firm like a vow, the hope of rain.
—Carol Coffee Reposa, “Vegetable Love in Texas”

Blessing:
Bless, O God the farmers, the tomatoes.
Bless the spring crocus, awaking like a gift from deep within.
Bless the drivers, the delivery, the matrix of workers seen and unseen.
Bless the cold rain, the snow, the sun, and quiet warmth.
Bless, bless, bless, O God. Amen.