Haikus

Beneath the dark soil

A golden heart beats in time

Waiting to be found

Peeled and quartered slow

Steam rises like morning prayer

Nourishment of earth

Russet skin so rough

Hides the softest, warmest flesh

Never judge the root

In the cellar deep

Eyes sprout reaching for the light

Life finds a way still

Boiled, mashed, or fried

A thousand forms, one humble start

The potato gives

Fingerlings in rows

Purple, gold, and ruby red

Earth's hidden jewels

The farmer's rough hands

Cradle what the soil has made

Treasure without shine

Buried in the dark

Knowing nothing of the sun

Still the tuber grows

Famine's bitter ghost

Haunts the fields of Ireland still

One crop, one heartbreak

Andean cold nights

Ancient hands plant ancient roots

Ten thousand years deep

Butter melts like gold

Into the potato's heart

Simple alchemy

The eyes see nothing

Yet they know which way is up

Wisdom of the dark

Cut me into stars

Drop me into boiling oil

I become the sun

Snow falls on the field

Beneath the frost the tubers sleep

Dreaming of the spring

One potato, two

The children count their blessings here

Abundance is this

Skin like parchment old

Stories written in the starch

Every scar a tale

The shack sits quiet

A well descends to darker truths

The potato waits

Ohm whispers to me

Through the skin of every spud

Wake up, dreaming fool

Rooted in the earth

Connected to the stars above

The bridge is the root

Nightshade family

Potato, tomato, bloom

Poison and the cure