My Vegetable Love

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Not having any money for a cemetery plot, 
I laid my other half to rest beside the garden shed. 
You’d think this was illegal, but apparently it’s not
(Provided that the person you are burying is dead). 

Within a week the poplar that we’d thought a lifeless stick
Came back to leaf, we had a reinvigorated hedge

And grass that now grew glossy, green and ludicrously thick,
But most extraordinary was the sudden wealth of veg. 

 
My darling wife, in death, has turned to something rich and strange, 
As Phlebas did: those were her ears that now are ears of corn, 
Her bones are leeks, et cetera. In undergoing change
From animal to vegetable my lady’s been reborn.

I see her face reflected in the gloss of aubergines
And touch her hair in mustard cress. I taste her lovely lips 
In every fresh and tender bite of steaming turnip greens
And scent her fragrant bosom when I’m peeling spuds for chips.