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2nd Place

Nancy Jesse

Dear garlic scape. Dear vegetable
shaped liked some precious necklace
that showed up in my CSA box.

Those pretty pearls of garlic
that I haven’t a clue how to cook
and worse, I know I cannot digest.
What to do with you—

So unlike the familiar beet or comforting
carrot or prodigious zucchini, you are
confined to the chiller for two weeks,
crowded by store-bought celery

and home-grown rhubarb. Exotic one,
you could not serve me – not even in
a flower vase, like some
agricultural objet d’art.

In the end, you do what you can:
feed the composter
finding a kind of redemption
maybe resurrection
through serving your fellow plants.

Judge’s Comments: They say there is nothing new under the sun, but this is the first poem I have seen on the garlic scape, so I say bravo for originality. Obviously, there is room in the world of poetry for more topics, and this writer has found one. Many readers will identify with the narrative elements in this poem, including the arrival of a CSA box with vegetables that offer a culinary challenge. This poem is like the scape itself, gracefully simple and deftly humble, but certainly not disposable. I love garlic scapes, and instead of composting them, I would suggest dicing them up, freezing them, and then using them to top pizza or to add flavor to stir fry.