By Kaila Topping, Phase II Fellow
Daily life on the farm at Augusta Health is hard to describe all at once. It is fun, hard, and always loaded with vegetables. Therefore, I have written a series of haikus, chronicling trivial aspects of life on the farm at Augusta Health.
Snap peas crunch sweetly
but loathsome to the picker
I compost with joy
Remay in the wind
twisting about my body
veil for the new bride
washing cut lettuce
the bane of my existence
torture me no more
all the daily woes
delirious in the heat
happy in hindsight
aphids on the farm
they feast on my sanity
make Pat go crazy
the snails are my buds
rudely munching on our crops
contentious friendship
eggs of the lacewing
hang in delicate balance
eat up our aphids
oh, fish emulsion
bringing strength to our new plants
how I reek of you
Many sides of Pat
Patrice, Patty Pan, Popcorn
Self-assigned nicknames
Tony the t-rex
what a colossal helper
with arms too tiny
greenhouses come late
erected with much trouble
it’s still not quite right
bend your knees, she says
minding the ergonomics
come back from Texa
B.C.S. tractor
why won’t you turn on for me
uniquely painful
summer solstice sun
speedy growth, no end in sight
uneven tan lines
keeping pests away
I bathe all my leaves in clay
ghostly cucumber
together again
but never for long enough
missing these people