Emerald Leaves

Can you imagine
Old plants as they give
Love to families,
Love that surrounds
All our closest kin?
Ripen quickly as
Delicious green sheets
Sandy with our soil.

Keep your watchful
Eye on the plants as
Emerald leaves sprout,
Plentiful for all.

Under the morning
Sun, always growing,

Heavy with daybreak dew,
Every leaf glistens
And shines with delight.
Lusting for sunshine,
They soon deliver
Health and nutrition.
You can’t wait to taste.


Note: This poem is an acrostic (the first letter of each line spells a word or a message), a style popularized in North Carolina among university students by George Moses Horton (1798-1880?), an enslaved African American who taught himself to read and composed in his head a series of stanzas based on the rhythms in Wesley hymns. This poem was prepared in appreciation of the Fifth Annual Collard Festival in Maxton, NC, that I attended on Nov. 13, 2010.