✨ Beefsteak
Beefsteak
You must grow your own miracles.
Special has been hormoned
and hardened against the bump
and bruise. Pretty in the produce
aisle, but pithless and pitiful.
I prefer a nude stocking sling
for the heft, a slow blush,
not the red-on-arrival rouge
needled in the green-to-go.
In a hot June—the prize, only
once a year, the furrowed fruit
weighs down its stems for clipping
in your open hand, quite full
of tender skin.
Take care carrying
them to the kitchen, prepare
the bed of lettuce or only bread
and mayo, and oh! say a prayer before
you slice a single slice and lay
the flawless redness down and bite.
—Rick Maxson
“Beefsteak” is paired with this modern beatitude in our new Earth Song Poems to Listen By patron audio series…
Blessed are those who offer praise
every day; every hour of their lives
will brim with beauty
and even the darkest days will be rich in gifts.
—Erin Geesaman Rabke
Hear the exclusive audio if you’re a Tweetspeak patron.
“Beefsteak,” by Rick Maxson, from Earth Song: a nature poems experience, ed. Sara Barkat,
. Embodied Beatitudes by Erin Geesaman Rabke. Poem and beatitude used by permission of the authors. Photo by Bethan, Creative Commons license via Flickr.