The Rabbi’s Backyard Garden after my Grandfather’s Funeral

-Sara Kaplan

The old rabbi shows me his tomato garden—

down the deck steps,

through overgrowth trimmed,

a coffin of tomatoes.

I bend to touch

his hands as he touches

their skins—

The tomatoes slip away to oxidized metal,

and suck at the mixed

drink of chemical and pot.

He tells me, look—don’t touch

what will happen to you. It’s like art.

He shows me how to pray—

garden without touching the fruit.

Currently, Sara Kaplan is an English Instructor at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas where she teaches Creative Writing, Composition, and Literature. She is the former editor of Fugue literary journal at the University of Idaho where she earned an MFA in poetry. Her work has appeared in LIT 9, The Cincinnati Review, Talking River Review, The Meadow, the InLand, The Antioch Review, and Harpur Palate. http://www.delmar.edu/engl/instruct/skaplan