In honor of 'spaw's visit, a pome (and a sublime little pun).

ODE TO A ROAD APPLE
                            by Thea Gavin

                Here, without using chemicals,
                I play the hand that nature deals-
                my garden's where an earthworm feels secure.
                Sky high corn, and these tomatoes
                dwarf their tough-skinned tasteless kin, those
                pathetic mutants at the grocery store.

                If I shared my little secret
                it might spoil your will to eat, yet
                also give you food for thought if you're unsure.
                I use fertilizer so fine
                from the south end of my equine
                friends in-stalled outside the city: horse manure.

                Gardener's gold, I load and pile it
                mix it, turn it, wait and while it
                cooks I test it every smelly couple days:
                plunge my hand into the steaming
                reeking middle, what's it needing...
                air? or water? "One more week," the odor says.

                Manue compost on the side as
                a snug blanket, makes like midas:
                everything it touches turns to veggie gold.
                Green bean vines devour their trellis,
                rabid zucchini overwhelm us -
                that stuff seems to make them giddy and quite bold.

                So try this healthy spinach sample
                courtesy of horses' ample
                capacity for pelletizing hay.
                And if it messes up your thinking
                to be eating what was stinking
                manure, think how you might recycle too some day.


                                            Thea Gavin
                                            11/27/00