Trout feeding in the current,
creek steaming in the cold;
we stood in the willow brake,
highway out behind us,
looking for the moose we’d seen.

(Transylvanian, a Softneck Silverskin/Artichoke garlic)
Teeny Biaggio is twelve years old.
Her mother brought her to my farm to interview me
for a paper for her sixth grade English class.
We sat outside, on the deck.

(French Germinadour, a Hardneck Purple Stripe Garlic)
My father was born in Russia, my mother in Poland.
They grew garlic in our garden in Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.
If I had an ear ache Poppa pushed a garlic clove into my ear.
If I had a toothache Momma made me chew garlic cloves.

Over the last thirty-five years I have collected eighty-five varieties
of garlic from seventeen different countries. They differ in:
appearance, size, skin colors, number of cloves, taste.
To defeat the gophers, I plant in wood boxes with wire bottoms.
Planting-time: September through November.
60 boxes, 150 cloves planted in each box.

The bullet knew his middle name.
He awoke, not remembering his first.