Taste

Plexitype by Margaret Muza

In the watery cool of spring,
she seeks morels deep in the woods.

In the fall, she forages
mushrooms with jaunty names,
Hen of the Woods.

She will prepare
and serve up the forest
as a savory mushroom stroganoff.

For many years as a girl
Food was her enemy.

As she warred against it,
Food almost swallowed her.

Now that she’s more
tender with the delicacies
of food and herself,
she can’t bear
a scrap of waste, a neglected garden,
a hasty dish
or flavor unrealized.

Now she thinks as a farmer,
remembering soil and sunlight
leaves and breeze
as she cooks the yield
of the Wisconsin ground
in its season.

Now the labor
makes her patient.
She’s learned the hot juicy taste of summer,
the heartening root of winter.

She can eat a full meal
and taste
the seed.