Summer on the Farm

On the broad, flat plains of Kansas
Demeter sweats, shuffles, bent double
with her hoe. In her wake are live things

boiling from the ground. A riot
of vegetables, cucumbers
tomatoes and sweetpeas, all jostling

towards the sun. The vines writhe,
seething across the earth. The goddess
with the hoe squints backwards. Soon

she will take her knife, loosen the soil,
free them from the hollowed ground.
It will feel like giving birth.

Persephone, sullen, curled in a window seat,
stares glaze-eyed at the burgeoning garden
and craves pomegranates in the middle of July.