Sativa
Snacktime Sonata Challenge
By eight-thirty
the screen door will slam, leaving
the sound of washing dishes behind for
the resonant hum of bumblebees and
the family squabbles between purple martins.
You will not be allowed
Back inside with Mom and the scald-cheeked, noisy baby
until after lunch, unless
it is an emergency
like needing a band-aid
or when you were sick
on your favorite lavender jelly shoes.
But you don’t need anything from in there
when it is warm and there is no rain.
You are the ruler of this ever-shifting backyard realm
full of hidden pirate treasure,
fierce, scaled monsters waiting to be charmed
and a host of tiny,
ant-sized worlds
to observe and tell stories about.
When you are thirsty,
you can drink from the green garden hose
with the yellow stripe
coiled under the window of the garage.
When you are hungry,
you can go to the garden
under the living room window
by the screened-in back porch.
There, two full moons ago,
You carefully buried row upon row
of hard, round promises
into the black, fragrant soil.
Now, you have full power
to browse upon the plump, gravid spheres
that you nurtured from tenacious shoots then
butterfly-winged blossoms.
This garden belongs to you
alone.
It first developed slender, green pods
when your baby brother
was three days home.
You spent hours-
bare knees stained green from fresh-cut lawn-
watching for ladybugs and pulling slugs
among the predictable chorus of birdsong
and the distant drone of neighbors’ mowers
and away from the new, persistent cries
of an expanding family.
The taste of fresh-picked pea
still lingers on your tongue
decades later.
It is a fresh, smooth feel of early morning mist
rising from the pond in the backyard
and sweet, endless notes
of unplanned play and budding imagination.
The crisp bite is the texture
of surprise summer downpours splashing on skin
as you collect your toys and sprint
for the covered porch.
At the time,
Your palate could not discern a sugary promise
that this would be the way
of every summer
even though
it was the last
before
new jobs brought
daylong trips to babysitters
with concrete backyards
and rigid fun.
This taste
you cannot recapture
when you find fresh pods in windowsill pots
or piled in bountiful cartons
at farmer’s market stalls.
Still, you cannot resist
the hope of still-jacketed peas
and the next opportunity to peel open
their secret, unbounded
freedoms.
About the Creator
Penny Fuller
(Not my real name)- Other Labels include:
Lover of fiction writing and reading. Aspiring global nomad. Woman in science. Most at home in nature. Working my way to an unconventional life, story by story and poem by poem.
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Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insights
Compelling and original writing
Creative use of language & vocab
Easy to read and follow
Well-structured & engaging content
Eye opening
Niche topic & fresh perspectives
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
Comments (40)
It took me a while to catch up and read your poem, but I'm so glad I did. What precious memories preserved in verse! This is the serenity we could live in until end of days. Well done!
Congratulations on your victory.
Your poetic story brought me back to my own childhood and all its backyard glory. What a wonderful first-place piece. Well-deserved. 🦋🍀🦉
I like how this flows down Penny, and the way it’s written as spoken back to your childhood self. “to browse upon the plump, gravid spheres that you nurtured from tenacious shoots then butterfly-winged blossoms.” is a lovely line that’s full of imagery! 👏
Wow congrats 🎉🎉 great poem
Sounds like someone may have been a 70's or 80's baby. Awesome!
what a beautiful poem - congratulations on the win but moreso on the wonderful poem itself.
wow this was a gem-glad it won
Congratulations on your well-deserved win!
Congratulations on your win and your writing is highly highly splendid. It is well written with all the emotions and difficulties of childhood. More blessings to you.
Lovely images! Congrats! ☺️👍
you capture so much here- just beautiful. congrats!
love the hope of returning
Congrats on the win!!🥰
Congratulations. What a great piece and so well written!
Congratulations, a very worthy win!
Congratulations on the win. This was such a wonderfully written poem
You earned the win! This is vividly beautiful and took me back to my own childhood days.
You captured the lovely childhood of summers outside, growing up into jobs of babysitting, but away from the green outdoor freedom; and the budding gardener into the veggie gourmand! So wonderful. CONGRATULATIONS on the win! 🏆🎊❣️😻😻👍
I had them with my grandma , great words
Beautiful. I can taste the peas! Congratulations on winning the challenge!
Deliciously written! Congratulations on WINNING the Snacktime Sonata challenge! A beautiful piece well worthy of the honor!!
This was so beautiful and evocative! Congrats on the 1st prize in the Snacktime Sonata and Top Story!
Oh, this is just so beautiful. Congratulations on your win, penny - this poem deserves that and more. It is hopeful and feels like the hard, round promise of a pea.
So your favorite childhood snack was fresh peas?