Maureen Kingston

To Market, To Market
After Ester Hernandez’ poster “Sun Mad,” 1982

Sacred icon of the harvest, how your halo glows, how it pulses white from sulfur dust & insecticides. O blessed sun-maid Mary, how your garden grows – clusters of grapes primed plump by piped rain & fertility drugs. At summer’s end, stoop labor’s curved blades cut perfect bunches from your cane, lay newborns onto paper sheets to dry, to marshal sweetness. A trick play, this interlude, a feint for the innocents. On the main stage, Act Three already underway – invisible hands angling, folding & creasing, sculpting STOP signs into red-box graves.

recess,
snack time, naptime . . .
sitting ducks

Note: The image can be viewed here: "Sun Mad"