When you walk among them,
they seems like they’ll be here
waving and bobbing their happy heads
forever, growing by the long dirt road
leading to the farm.

Like an LP you can play again and again,
the leggy zinnias and butterfly-winged
cosmos flutter on a blessedly cool
summer morning that you didn’t
expect after weeks of a bumper crop
of heat.

Nor did you expect all this loveliness
on U-Pick day amid the furrows
of the farmer’s crop—the tomatoes
and zucchini running so amuck
that they are pressed upon you
along with the stems you have
snipped as you walk the rows,
clippers and bag in hand.

Clouds skip like a flock of sky sheep
high in the wide-open blue, and you
pause at each of the farmer’s
philosophical signs planted carefully
along the long row of growth:

Cultivating your daily life:
Plant three rows of peas
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul

Plant four rows of squash:
Squash gossip
Squash indifference
Squash grumbling
Squash selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce:
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be patient
Lettuce really love one another

Out here—where the idea
is to clip flowers for others,
put each stem into a waiting jar,
then give it away—you embrace
the lettuce really love one another

idea, whisper it like a mantra or a
prayer as you tuck a merry zinnia
blossom into your peace of heart,
pledging to embody such generosity
on this day and every day of your
sweet, long-playing life.

•••

For Jill Batiansila and Cliff Wilcox, generous farmers extraordinaire in Elk Grove, California, and for the Together We Heal community.

•••

There will be another U-Pick day at Cliff Wilcox’s farm in Elk Grove, just south of Sacramento, on Saturday, Aug. 3, from 9:30–11:30 a.m. Tickets from $10–$25. Proceeds to benefit Together We Heal, a Sacramento regional nonprofit dedicated to those who are grieving. Information and tickets available in advance here.