At our farmer’s market
Krisztina has the best tarts
and breads, though my
favorites are her cookies:
lemon-poppyseed, lime-ginger,
rosemary-walnut, five
to a package in a faintly
iridescent wrapper with
a gold twisty. Not shortbread,
but grainier, sablé from
the French for “sand.” I ask
if Krisztina accepts checks
(my wife usually does the shopping),
and she replies, with a warm
Eastern European smile, “Just take them.”
She hands me the lemon-
poppyseed, adds, “You’re the local
poet. Write a poem about them!”
I must look gobsmacked.
This has never happened to me
before. “I am so honored.”
Out of their magical cellophane
shining faint pink, yellow,
and blue the tiny seeds sown
on the flat round plots
of the cookies promise blooms
of flavor on the tongue.
At home, inspecting them,
I wonder how I can ever
get anything approaching
the sweetness and joy
of their gift into a poem.
for Krisztina Szabo

Thomas R. Smith is a poet, essayist, editor, and teacher living in western Wisconsin.  His most recent book of poems is MEDICINE YEAR (Paris Morning Publications).  He has edited a selection of Robert Bly’s essays on poetry and the writing life, THE GARDEN ENTRUSTED TO ME, forthcoming from White Pine Press.