Poem: "The Cabbage"

 

The Cabbage
By Ruth Stone 

You have rented an apartment.
You come to this enclosure with physical relief,
your heavy body climbing the stairs in the dark,
the hall bulb burned out, the landlord
of Greek extraction and possibly a fatalist.
In the apartment leaning against one wall,
your daughter's painting of a large frilled cabbage
against a dark sky with pinpoints of stars.
The eager vegetable, opening itself
as if to eat the air, or speak in cabbage
language of the meanings within meanings;
while the points of stars hide their massive
violence in the dark upper half of the painting.
You can live with this.

 

Ruth Stone was born in Virginia in 1915 and now lives in Vermont. She is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including In the Next Galaxy (which won the National Book Award), In the Dark, When Love Comes To, and Ordinary Words.

Comments

[Monet]

Just cut open a cabbage this morning to make slaw for lunch. A lovely and timely poem.