Seeding the Mstery

Time of Singing

A Magazine Of Christian Poetry

Volume 37  Number 3

Winter 2010/2011

SEEDING THE MYSTERY
(The tomato is celebrated in legends of romance as an apple of love.)

The winter of your dying past,
it's time to seed the tomatoes.
As memory would have it,
I find you in the potting shed.
I watch through the window
as you make small drain holes
in the bottom of Styrofoam cups
and pour in a measure of potting soil
every bit as promising as desire.

The fierce grip that once operated 
bulldozers with tires as tall as cars
now let go,
you moisten the tip of a work-strutted
finger, touch it to your tongue
and pick straight up a small brownish-red seed
as dry and springy as a speck of dust
and drop in a womb-like cup
an embryo embedded
with a replica of love apples
heavy with summer-sweet flesh.

                                   Betty Spence
                                   Mobile, Alabama