straight from the ground

“Do you want a cucumber?”

a woman asked her grandchild

harvesting in her garden

the question ran through the field

and when it hit the wall of the forest

it broke into a thousand pieces and

echoed for a while before ceasing

but it stayed with me

what a beautiful offer

a gift straight from the ground

the continuous power of growth

available to her offspring for his

I kept hearing the sounds of her tools

turning the soil, her sighs, her work

and the sound of the crispy, green

vegetable crushed by the child’s teeth

a simple moment in the morning of

the day I returned to the city

what does the ground offer here

my question hit a cement wall

no echo