April 2022
Bio Note: My award-winning poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. My most recent book (my eighth), titled Outside the Frame: New and Collected Poems, was published in December 2021 by Kelsey Books. I live in Madison, Wisconsin, where I continue to write, teach, eat more veggies, and try to keep the lights on in an ever-darkening world.
The Showdown
Okay, Zucchini,
with your sleek Sicilian good looks—
I know all about you and the rest
of the Zucca family, how you start out
small, in the corner of some
respectable old giardino (nobody
even notices) and then you spread,
don’t you, till you’ve moved in on
all the little guys, the beans
and the carrots and cukes,
and pretty soon you’re in charge
of the whole damn fattoria, right?
Well, I’ve got news for you, pal,
you’re past your prime. You’re ripe
to spend the rest of your natural life
in the cooler. Think I’m kidding?
Listen, either play along or it’s
Ratatouille! Ratatouille!
—a year in the jug for you, Zuke.
And your little tomato, too.
©2022 Marilyn Taylor
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