Sweet

Sweet
Morgan
County, CO

We make sugar here,
watch trucks roll in full of beets,
heading for the billowed white cloud
eight miles away.  Think mounds of tan
rotund carrots, not the red obscene. Remember,
these are sugar beets.  They sit in piles for weeks,
months on bare ground. Rotting mountains waiting
in rain and snow, majestic beneath beet cloud steam.
Maybe your sugar comes from some exotic island,
not from the great western plains where high school
cheerleaders spell in short skirts and autumn rosy
cheeks: B-e-e-t  D-i-g-g-e-r-s, BHS, BHS, BHS! Yes!
Have you ever breathed the powdered air of a beet
town, or been surprised by the symmetrical stench
of pyramidal piles of white beet lime?  Or walked
antique Escheresque factory steps where grated
steel winds and leads beet workers nowhere,
insured?  Come see what sugar does, how it
makes women’s bottoms blossom in
community college hallways,
men’s eyes roam, children
run, and my coffee
so sweet. Come,
share a cup
with
me.

2007