The floods have ruined the British vegetable growers. <br />Tough. But <br />the supermarkets will just buy elsewhere, <br />we'll hardly notice, apart from TV's brief comment... <br /> <br />This week, what of our organic vegetable bag <br />whose carrots are usually a joyful memory <br />of what carrots, pulled yesterday, used to, still can, taste like? <br /> <br />- so this week, just one, huge carrot. The Great Survivor. <br />Gnarled, a giant among the pretty, washed, and fashionable ones <br />smiling under the golden light of supermarket shelves - <br />it looked as if it had fought battles, come through wars <br />which of course few want to be reminded of <br />by those old veterans with their tales of times <br />too testing of mortality for us to think about... <br /> <br />eaten later, it would have a subtler taste - <br />of gratitude, of praise. <br /> <br />A kitchen; a carrot; a man holding a knife, <br />on the edge of tears.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-heroic-carrot/
