<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Harvest</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">It’s autumn in the market—</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">not wise anymore to buy tomatoes.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">They’re beautiful still on the outside,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">some perfectly round and red, the rare varieties</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">misshapen, individual, like human brains covered in red oilcloth—</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Inside, they’re gone. Black, moldy—</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">you can’t take a bite without anxiety.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Here and there, among the tainted ones, a fruit</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">still perfect, picked before decay set in.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Instead of tomatoes, crops nobody really wants.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Pumpkins, a lot of pumpkins.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Gourds, ropes of dried chilies, braids of garlic.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">The artisans weave dead flowers into wreaths;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">they tie bits of colored yarn around dried lavender.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">And people go on for a while buying these things</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">as though they thought the farmers would see to it</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">that things went back to normal:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">the vines would go back to bearing new peas;</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">the first small lettuces, so fragile, so delicate, would begin</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">to poke out of the dirt.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">Instead, it gets dark early.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">And the rains get heavier; they carry</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">the weight of dead leaves.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">At dusk, now, an atmosphere of threat, of foreboding.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">And people feel this themselves; they give a name to the season,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">harvest, to put a better face on these things.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">The gourds are rotting on the ground, the sweet blue grapes are finished.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">A few roots, maybe, but the ground’s so hard the farmers think</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">it isn’t worth the effort to dig them out. For what?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">To stand in the marketplace under a thin umbrella, in the rain, in the cold,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">no customers anymore?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">And then the frost comes; there’s no more question of harvest.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">The snow begins; the pretense of life ends.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">The earth is white now; the fields shine when the moon rises.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">I sit at the bedroom window, watching the snow fall.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">The earth is like a mirror:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">calm meeting calm, detachment meeting detachment.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">What lives, lives underground.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class="">What dies, dies without struggle.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Louise Gluck</div></div></body></html>