Posted: Mar 7, 08 4:50pm

Apotheosis of the Kitchen Goddess II

by Teresa Noelle Roberts

"There is a goddess and I know her. Her hands are not clean,

And she is large and strong and not too young. She wears

A sweatshirt with a hood and jeans, and sells black-purple

Eggplant, spinach, bright broccoli, sixty cents

The pound at the Greenmarket in Union Square. Her slat-side truck

Has Pennsylvania plates, and she says she lives near Lancaster.

But I know the truth, because her calloused hands turn earth

To things good to eat, and green, and lovely."