Vegetables

Summer in West Frankfurt
Time to harvest vegetables,
Grandpa has a broad-brimmed
Summer hat out in their back
Yard vegetables in rows on
Each side of the path back
To the pen for the hunting
Dogs each row specific
To some vegetable.
Corn, carrots, potatoes,
Tomatoes, beans, berries,
All in rows with Grandpa
Carrying a basket
In which to
Place the crop,
Grandma has on a huge
Bonnet that looks like
Her face is peeking out
Of the back of an old
West covered wagon.
They pull carrots,
Twist off ears of corn,
Pick tomatoes and
Dig up potatoes
Then wash the
Vegetables
With a
Hose
Before
Pickling or
Canning them.
So many preserves,
Each in a glass jar with
Paraffin on top sealed by
A metal lid waiting for winter.
Grandma bent over with her basket
Grandpa crouched with his,
Moving methodically
Along the rows
With their
Youngest
Daughters running
Back and forth helping
With the skills acquired over
Many years of harvesting
Vegetables, canning
Them, and looking
Forward to dusk
When their
Work is
Over
For that day.
What looked like fun
To us as kids was
All too real for
My aunts.
When
We
Would ask
My father what
He wanted for his
Birthday present he
Would always respond,
“An honest day’s work.”