Alphabet bean soup

~ Nancy Barber

Green beans
in a snap
shimmy
out
of their white blossom
umbrellas
and
dangle
like earrings
from their stems.

Some beans are
long,
slender
shapely
like a feminine leg
in silk stockings
with a seam
running
up the back.

Others,
inpatient for pickers
drop
silently
from their straphangers
spelling
S O S
in the sandy soil.

Gardeners, like grammar police
gather up the
errant
commas
question marks
lower-case e’s
half-fast c’s
and toss them into
a savory boiling chicken stock
thick with garlic, rosemary and potatoes-
homegrown alphabet soup.