ISSUE: Summer 1986
No one ever could explain why
the moon governed the crops, why things
fruiting above ground like beans
must be planted on the wax
and those bearing under soil
as carrots or potatoes should
be put out on the wane, and why
corn seeded on the full would go
tree high, all stalk and little ear,
and why peas started at the new
might not fill out their shells. It seemed
certain the force that plucked the tides
could interfere with vegetables
and cast its power and coldness
over enzyme and germ, that cells
could be stirred or starved by
answering ebbs and highs, and that
the pulse of all, though not lunar,
was sensitive to the face of
earth’s closest alien, But no one
ever said, while sun is life itself,
how the cool sister of night,
changing, ruled the summer kingdom,
though high and calm as strangest dream.
the moon governed the crops, why things
fruiting above ground like beans
must be planted on the wax
and those bearing under soil
as carrots or potatoes should
be put out on the wane, and why
corn seeded on the full would go
tree high, all stalk and little ear,
and why peas started at the new
might not fill out their shells. It seemed
certain the force that plucked the tides
could interfere with vegetables
and cast its power and coldness
over enzyme and germ, that cells
could be stirred or starved by
answering ebbs and highs, and that
the pulse of all, though not lunar,
was sensitive to the face of
earth’s closest alien, But no one
ever said, while sun is life itself,
how the cool sister of night,
changing, ruled the summer kingdom,
though high and calm as strangest dream.
