Zucchini Poem

Elizabeth Zelvin


the zucchini crouches
behind a broad green leaf
patient in her camouflage


imperialist tentacles of vine
are taking over the garden
shouting mine mine


like a woman waiting
for the revolution
the zucchini bides her time


rain falls in the night
first stealthy
then triumphant like a coup d'état


come morning
the zucchini squats
swollen in the sunlight


proud of her belly
covering the earth
with a yellow flower behind her ear

 

Elizabeth Zelvin is a writer living in New York who has poems appearing in Womanspirit and 13th Moon. She has recently completed a book about an alternative marriage, and among her other interests are "singing and song-writing, teaching creative movement, and trying to understand the synthesis of anarchism and feminism."