[From HUMANITAS, Volume
VI, No. 2, 1993 © National Humanities Institute,
Washington, DC USA]
Leeks
Heidy Anne Steidlmayer
These leeks are stalking me.
See them move unloved limbs
through vacant refrigerator light.
In fact, I think they're witches.
They hexed the milk.
All night long I heard them muttering Beelzebub
to the radishes.
They've been fooling with the eggs.
Far cries from the lily,
O shameless purity. Pollyannas
fold their dresses in the dark.
Listen, weird sisters. Hold
your tongues.
Tomorrow, I am making my father
cockaleekie soup.
Just the way he likes it.
Copyright © 2000 National Humanities Institute
Updated 8 April 2000