Letter to a Worm from a Sweet Potato
Listen to Zaro's poem ... read by JH
hey worm
was I glad to see you
cos there I was
an orange-curious lump
peekaboo roots barely breathing in the
deep-down
so blind-dark
heavy heavy of earth
stuck stuck
when
whoop whoop
it all happened
I spotted you and your
slither-slide army so
busy busy
digging quiver-tiny paths
zigzagways routes
squirm-brown roads
all around me and
I said to me
this is my finest hour
cos now my very own
pale pale
so minuscule roots
can finally breathe their way through
the big underneath of
the big everything
and find all the
heaven-food
they need to grow
which means worm
lickety-split
bing bang boom
I can turn into the
lump-round
orange
fat
sweet potato
I was always meant to be so
whoop whoop again
I thank you worm
and that whole
wiggle-wonderful army of yours
from
your sweetly sweetly
grateful and
finally finally
fully grown up
lump-orange-happy
sweet potato : )
was I glad to see you
cos there I was
an orange-curious lump
peekaboo roots barely breathing in the
deep-down
so blind-dark
heavy heavy of earth
stuck stuck
when
whoop whoop
it all happened
I spotted you and your
slither-slide army so
busy busy
digging quiver-tiny paths
zigzagways routes
squirm-brown roads
all around me and
I said to me
this is my finest hour
cos now my very own
pale pale
so minuscule roots
can finally breathe their way through
the big underneath of
the big everything
and find all the
heaven-food
they need to grow
which means worm
lickety-split
bing bang boom
I can turn into the
lump-round
orange
fat
sweet potato
I was always meant to be so
whoop whoop again
I thank you worm
and that whole
wiggle-wonderful army of yours
from
your sweetly sweetly
grateful and
finally finally
fully grown up
lump-orange-happy
sweet potato : )
This poem is copyright (©) Zaro Weil 2024
About the Writer
Zaro Weil
Zaro has been a lot of things: dancer, theatre director, actress, poet, playwright, educator, quilt collector and historian, author, publisher and a few others. She has been collecting American quilts for more than twenty years and has exhibited her collection variously in London galleries. She has written on quilts for Vogue, Elle Decoration, Traditional Homes and Interiors as well as numerous newspapers. Her poetry for children has appeared in many anthologies. She has written several books including a book of children’s poetry, Mud, Moon and Me (Orchard Books, UK and Houghton Mifflin, USA), Firecrackers (Troika) illustrated by Jo Riddell and Cherry Moon (2020 CLiPPA Award Winner).
