Saturday, April 11, 2009

A Conversation

"It doesn't seem fair," I said this morning as I lopped the root off a perfectly formed beet. "You put on all this beautiful growth, and then I come along and eat you."

I cut the tops off and picked through them, setting aside the younger ones. Then I reached again for the knife. "But then, if I didn't eat you, what would you do anyway?"

"I would grow new roots," the beet said. "Long ones. Lateral ones. I would explore new avenues in the soil. You have no idea what's under there. I would become larger and even more beautiful. I would reach my full potential. And then I would produce seed. Seed! You should know what that's like. I would have the pleasure of watching my seeds sprout and grow. Eventually I would turn woody and stiff, but at the end I would be surrounded by the new generation I produced."

My hand, which had paused in mid-air from surprise, came down again from force of habit.

"Do you realize you just cut me in half?" the beet asked a little disjointedly.

7 comments:

crystal said...

Have you ever read The Secret Life of Plants? :)

Susan said...

Yes, I've read it. And I believe every word.

Happy Easter, Crystal!

crystal said...

Happy Eastr!

Jenny Hill said...

Poor disjointed beet! The first paragraph of Tom Robbins' "Jitterbug Perfume." Read it if you haven't - read the whole book - but the first paragraph is beety-goodness.

Indigo Bunting said...

Oh, so wonderful! Great piece! (Or two pieces, seeing it's been cut in half.)

Eulalia Benejam Cobb said...

That Indigo, she's so good at hooking people up!

Does "sweet rocket" mean arugula, my favorite salad green?

I look forward to reading more here.

Susan said...

Hi Lali! No, Sweet Rocket means Hesperis, or Dame's Rocket. But it can mean arugula if you want it to. :-)