One asparagus,
sidewinding through the butter-tawny sand
on the shadowy side of a six-storey dune
a hundred miles from grass in every direction
a hundred years from grass of the past and future
This one asparagus
swizzles in the frying afternoon
leaving serpentine ripples that S S S S S S
its body at both ends S _______ S
The seeker of green looking down from the top of the dune
sees the ripples and catches the tiny emerald sliver
like the tongue of a snake
The seeker’s tongue makes the sound
as-pa-rag-us that begins and ends in S
The seeker of green has a muscle that flexes from S to S
in the parched air
flexing hard against the windborne sand
like the body of the asparagus slithering across the dune
One asparagus, even in shadow, cooking slowly,
swiftly snaking, tempting the sweating seeker
to chase S S S S S S
the asparagus that slithers alone in the desert day.
*****
Canadian researcher Terry Trowbridge’s poems have appeared in The New Quarterly, Carousel, subTerrain, paperplates, Dalhousie Review, untethered, Nashwaak Review, Orbis, Snakeskin Poetry, American Mathematical Monthly, M58, CV2, Brittle Star, Lascaux Review, Carmina,, Progenitor, Muleskinner, Sulphur, Northridge Review, Ex-Puritan, Perceptions, Granfalloon, Literary Hatchet, Calliope, New Note, Confetti, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, and more. He is grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for grant funding during the polycrisis.
