Jordan Smith Harvest Home

Harvest Home

The guys in the hunting shirts

And baseball caps

Beside their vans and trucks

With the tailgates open, selling

Tomatoes a little past prime,

Red peppers, pumpkins, syrup,

Have all got either too much

Or too little so say about

Us flatlanders who stand

An acorn squash in each hand,

Looking for the flaws in the skin,

The soft spots in the bushel,

As if weighing the options

For a metaphor for autumn, but

The sign says 2/$1.00, and that’s

Enough, which is also what harvest

Is: take what you want and whatever’s

Left, since abundance teaches

What waste can’t--of imperfect

Being, being what we are.