The Opposite of Hubbard Squash Is Love
Drive up Route 7 and you can find
Shute’s Pumpkin and Squash Stand
where we buy Autumn Crown,
Honeynut, and Long Island Cheese
squash. Maybe even Hubbard.
Once I grew Hubbards, their fat
bodies swollen beneath mottled leaves.
I’d put them on a shelf in the cold
closet or in basement boxes full
of crumpled newspapers, save them
for last, because they were so hard
to cut. I’d carry them up, haul them
away from the thumping wood
furnace, put them into a bowl
of light on the kitchen table. Days
like that are only dreams now,
something I conjure up as I press
a knife to tough skin. Keep the door
closed. Keep the windows shut.
It’s finally raining. Watch the sea
rise. So many needles have fallen
this year. Drought or global warming?
You can’t be casual with a Hubbard.
Make your first slice close
to the neck, hope for tenderness.
Shute’s Pumpkin and Squash Stand
where we buy Autumn Crown,
Honeynut, and Long Island Cheese
squash. Maybe even Hubbard.
Once I grew Hubbards, their fat
bodies swollen beneath mottled leaves.
I’d put them on a shelf in the cold
closet or in basement boxes full
of crumpled newspapers, save them
for last, because they were so hard
to cut. I’d carry them up, haul them
away from the thumping wood
furnace, put them into a bowl
of light on the kitchen table. Days
like that are only dreams now,
something I conjure up as I press
a knife to tough skin. Keep the door
closed. Keep the windows shut.
It’s finally raining. Watch the sea
rise. So many needles have fallen
this year. Drought or global warming?
You can’t be casual with a Hubbard.
Make your first slice close
to the neck, hope for tenderness.
September / October, 2022
Judy Kaber is the Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine, as well as author of three chapbooks: Renaming the Seasons, In Sleep We Are All the Same, and A Pandemic Alphabet. Her poems appeared in such publications as Poet Lore, Atlanta Review, december, Hunger Mountain, and Spillway.
Art: Madge Evers. Urchins. Mushroom Spores on Paper, 2016.