I slam on the brakes     commotion ahead hooting, shouting and swearing     is somebody dead?   a bicycle wobbles     on the crown of the road the onion-man bringing     his brown-braided load   festooned round his handlebars     trailing behind draped in long necklaces     round, brown, entwined   he takes off his beret     he puts down his onions […]

He was a smaller man when I saw him again, his clothes one size too big, his face, a pencil sketch of the original.   He was pulling up withered pea plants, desiccated pods, twisted and split discarding wrinkled peas on the dry autumn earth.   How are you coping? We’re OK, things take longer. […]

“My dear, I get my beans from a nice little man in Nicaragua.” Ah, Nicaragua, once the land of the jaguar! Lady, know what a drag you are?   In land next to lakes in Kenya the water-table gets teenier, the people there has-beans too, left high and dry. For you.   Asparagus grown in […]

She’s cookin’ tonight – cookin’ for the family, been to the market – oye chak de phatte!   Makin’ sarson ka saag – we’re celebratin’ Lohri, I’m celebratin’ her – she celebratin’ me.   Hit you’ daggah, babe – bom, bom, tap my tilli. Balle balle! She got ginger – she’s a chillie chillie.   […]

All winter, I’ve nursed the seed potatoes. I’ve chitted them and tricked their green fuses To break out into anaemic, triffid shoots, Probing for the promise of light and summer. Now it’s Easter, ambiguous Easter: Time to halt the fooling about, and plant.   Sow, seed, sperm, sex, egg, birth, shoots, spring, begin.   I […]

“My vegetable love should grow…” and Marvellous to note a mind so elevated touch upon a thing as lowly for Love’s likeness.        (Hull’s a home to peas and poets.)   Andrew as gardener though – I doubt it. He who knows his onions knows what Patience means : veg can’t be hurried – nor […]