by Miranda Cichy<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/p>\n
The year I grew tomatoes\u00a0<\/span>
\n I had no understanding\u00a0<\/span>
\n that my body was failing,\u00a0<\/span>
\n how the plants needed\u00a0<\/span>
\n more earth than I could give them,<\/span>
\n out in the yard<\/span>
\n on a concrete bed,\u00a0<\/span>
\n hunkered in pots\u00a0<\/span>
\n the size of my skull. I\u00a0<\/span>
\n fed them too early, I<\/span>
\n forgot to pierce<\/span>
\n the container holes<\/span>
\n and June drowned them.<\/span>
\n You can try too hard<\/span>
\n to care for something,<\/span>
\n and I watched through\u00a0<\/span>
\n the dusty window<\/span>
\n as the summer shifted,<\/span>
\n as my body took\u00a0<\/span>
\n a spade to itself, dug\u00a0<\/span>
\n and re-dug, broke\u00a0<\/span>
\n roots until the soil was raw.\u00a0<\/span>
\n Good days unfurl\u00a0<\/span>
\n in bad years<\/span>
\n like yellow flowers, sometimes\u00a0<\/span>
\n the fruit does set. But<\/span>
\n the tomatoes I picked<\/span>
\n were swollen, their faces<\/span>
\n multiplied, the seeds like grit,<\/span>
\n stems bending from the sticks\u00a0<\/span>
\n that were meant to hold them up.<\/span><\/p>\n\n- by\u00a0Miranda Cichy<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
United Kingdom<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Miranda Cichy The year I grew tomatoes\u00a0 I had no understanding\u00a0 that my body was failing,\u00a0 how the plants needed\u00a0 more earth than I could give them, out in the yard on a concrete bed,\u00a0 hunkered in pots\u00a0 the size of my skull. I\u00a0 fed them too early, I forgot to… Continue Reading ‘Poor Growing Season’, by Miranda Cichy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[28,53,86,109,116],"class_list":["post-3588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthology","tag-body","tag-distress","tag-loss","tag-strangeness","tag-time"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9mjRE-VS","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2745,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/singing-bones\/","url_meta":{"origin":3588,"position":0},"title":"‘Singing Bones’, by Katarina Juvancic","author":"strongs","date":"March 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Deeply submerged in the melancholy of the dying summer with my knees telling tales of the approaching cold and winter. 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