The air is hot and humid and the scent
of strawberries fills the kitchen.
Summertime and jalapenos,
green peppers, cucumbers,
and ripe cherry tomatoes fall off the vine.
Fresh plump figs droop on the branches
waiting to be picked.
The kitchen today is hot and steamy
with the old canning pot bubbling away.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining…yet.
First we whip up a specialty batch
Of strawberry fig preserves
(be sure to stir that pot often, honey).
There’s nothing better on a homemade
grilled biscuit than fresh preserves.
Follow up with a batch of mustard pickles
– a very secret recipe,
oh and just for shits and giggles
throw that Okra in one of those jars,
no point in letting them go to waste.
Garlic and fresh basil
with diced onions and oregano
simmered all day long
cooks up a delicious tomato sauce.
Twenty-six jars preserved and
my chores are done for today.
Tomorrow is a brand new adventure.
Thirty ears of corn await metamorphosis into
Old Time Corn Relish once those ears get husked.
Tonight I’m going outside in the heat
and pretend to be a kid again.
I’ll find a rock and wrap it
in a white handkerchief and
toss it up in the darkened sky
and wait for bats to come diving after it.
Just so I can laugh at the thought
of doing nothing,
or something close to nothing.
©Crackerberries 2012
