Marge Piercy

Here you will find the Poem Winter Promises of poet Marge Piercy

Winter Promises

Tomatoes rosy as perfect baby's buttocks, 
eggplants glossy as waxed fenders, 
purple neon flawless glistening 
peppers, pole beans fecund and fast 
growing as Jack's Viagra-sped stalk, 
big as truck tire zinnias that mildew 
will never wilt, roses weighing down 
a bush never touched by black spot, 
brave little fruit trees shouldering up 
their spotless ornaments of glass fruit: 

I lie on the couch under a blanket 
of seed catalogs ordering far 
too much. Sleet slides down 
the windows, a wind edged 
with ice knifes through every crack. 
Lie to me, sweet garden-mongers: 
I want to believe every promise, 
to trust in five pound tomatoes 
and dahlias brighter than the sun 
that was eaten by frost last week.