Cool Beans

I was so thrilled when Katerina Klemer choose my "Cool Beans" poem to read on her radio program, Accents, on August 21st. To hear the program for yourself, check out Accents and click on August 21, 2009.



COOL BEANS

If you come from Kentucky,
or any Southern state,
you know about the delicacy known to all as beans;
soup beans
kidney beans
navy beans
baked beans.
Try as I might, I never acquired the taste
for this healthy food of my parents and forefathers;
Kentucky pole beans
half runners
Roma flats
Blue Lakes.
Staples from the victory garden,
favored veggie of many home canners,
A bounty found in autumn
beneath the harvest moon.
Chili beans
red beans and rice
Lima beans, oh yuck;
recalling days I was made to clean my plate of these icky, mushy pods.
My taste runs more to sweeter beans –
okay, not veggies at all;
jelly beans and
vanilla beans and
coffee beans brewed on ice.
Occasionally I am tempted by a taco pizza with refried beans,
but Mexican jumping beans are really more my style,
pretty to look at instead of beans to taste;
And that’s really cool beans to me.