*Poem: "Eggplants"

Eggplants

 I am the eggplant

that the lucky ones

dream of on New Year's Eve,

black-purple bulb,

pulsing green umbilicus,

roasting in red September.

I dream of parmigiana,

or babaganouj.

I dream of seedhood.

I dream of summer.

I am Mount Fuji

that the lucky ones

dream of on New Year's Eve,

blue shoulders rubbing the sky,

rock toes warming at

Mother's lava heart.

I dream of a spring that never comes.

I dream I am an egg in a nest

pasted onto a cliff.

I dream of spewing eggplants,

vegetable fountain,

for the lucky to dream on,

glow in the Nagasaki night.

Dream of eggplants.

Dream of Fuji.

Fuji dreams of you.

Eggplants doze on and off,

mumble your name in sleep,

snore in light frost.

CAR  10/27/93