Added Value

Red Hook Community Farm

The 12-ft tall corn stalks and bales of hay
give it away. Garden beds over asphalt,
once a baseball field for dockworkers.
If only they could get a train to grow here.

We’ve come to collect our bounty:
Swiss chard (Vegetable of the Week),
summer squash, squash blossoms, herbs…
A radio booms “Everything is Everything.”

You wonder if we could call this home,
when we’re informed most contaminants
don’t leach up, they leach down….
For now, we’re enjoying our $1 coffee

and watching the local massage therapist
give somebody 20 min. free bodywork.
The new IKEA looms spectacularly
above the trees and chain-linked fence,

a 346,000-square-ft waterfront mirage,
a furnished labyrinth of ready-made rooms,
a minor principality with full bus service,
complimentary shuttles, and water taxis.

I dig into our bag of fresh vegetables,
and when I put the cherry tomato
in your hand it is an emblem of love,
bright, round, light, and unlikely.