As Twilight Falls

This poem won 1st place in Weber State's Writing Center Contest in the fall of 2011.

As Twilight Falls

The rusty sweetness of yams

dug up from the garden,

dirt beneath half-moon fingernails,

the pungent taste of radishes,

bitter fruit of the earth

 giving up her children after

she thought she’d buried them safely

beneath the dark soil.

Snap-peas that you used to call

snap-crackle peas because of the sound

they made when your small hands

snagged them from the vines.

The sun, like Rumpelstiltskin, illuminating

the golden strands of your hair.

The worms and beetles were your playmates,

counted as close friends, and when the rains fell,

how you buried them all again in the dirt so carefully,

so they wouldn’t know pain, wouldn’t dry out when the sun returned.

Though you have since made your bed amongst the beetles,

when the toad in our garden sings as twilight falls, and

the lavender shadows wrap around me like your little arms,

I sigh, knowing how Rapunzel once walked the earth here with me.

Here's a few links; they will be posting all the winners' work soon:

http://apps.weber.edu/WSUImages/WritingCenter/Writing%20Contest/WC%20Contest%20Winner%27s%20Flier%202.PDF

http://www.weber.edu/WritingCenter/WC/VerbalEquinox.html