Snow piles up against the walls, but thin clothes are all they wear
As the boy gardens within the greenhouses behind the school,
Red, bright tomatoes slipping out of his fingers, and popping into his mouth
That grins at the bursts of sweetness.
Inches from him, the man by one month pretends not to glance his way
Instead shifting through the bristling leaves to claim breakfast's zucchini.
He would complain at the theft if the tomatoes weren't everywhere
Making bland meals of packaged rice and canned beans a savory impossibility.
It isn't like little indulgence will take away all of the red little briberies,
The secret keys to a reluctant community spreading its arms wide months after the pair stumbled in.
The man scowls, and the boy glances up
Not hiding his interest like his companion.
The solution to anger is always tomatoes,
So the next slip of fingers is against the man's lips
As he bites down, the sweetness pops away mild irritation in the flavor of surprise.
Neither gives in to smiles, but their shoulders brush more than once as the tension seeps out with the heat into the snow.
YOU ARE READING
Life Will Bloom in Our Shadows
PoetryThese poems that will accompany you far beyond the end of this book are stories of human connections, bonds that slip through our fingers like silk ribbons or stretch out from us as vast and as eternal as the starlit sky. Third place in the Winter R...
