Showing posts with label Virgil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virgil. Show all posts

Friday, April 21, 2017

Growing Tomatoes (a georgic)

To grow tomatoes one needs fertilize the soil
Five pounds per hundred square feet, five pounds of limestone,
then mix them into the top layer of the soil.
Choose robust dark-green seedlings only, and choose short.
Plant in rows four feet apart.  Don't plant when it's cold,
they're killed by frost, when it's 32ยบ or below.
They need an inch of water a week, and eight hours
of sun each day.  You can apply mulch to control
the weeds.  Farmers, don't forget to pray for showers
and praise the sun and the moon and the blameless soul
of the universe so that your plants grow in full.

Friday, May 27, 2016

When the Boys Said to Her

For I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl of Cumae  
hanging in a jar
and when the boys said to her 
"Sybil, what do you want?" 
a word was heard: "liquor."