MONSIEUR PERDREAU’S GARDEN
Near dawn, a pheasant in the corn field crows.
Maurice, five years old, gets up and goes
with his grandfather to pick pommes de terre
they planted ten weeks ago.
Using only their hands, the delicately dig
through loose soil. The small potatoes gleam
like pale mice in the dark ground.
The boy jumps up and down when he realizes
how many they have found. All the while,
reciting what his grandfather told him,
“You have to plant one to get some.”
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"Monsieur Perdreau's Garden" was published in Pearl.
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