The Allotment

الكلمات الأصلية بالإنجليزية

[Verse 1]
The allotment needs a form.
The form has three pages.
The third page asks
what I intend to grow.
I write vegetables.
The form returns.
Please specify.

[Verse 2]
I write potatoes, beans, kale.
The form returns again.
Please indicate variety.
I don't know the variety.
The seeds are in a paper bag
my father gave me before he died.
The bag does not say.

[Hook]
A small plot.
A long form.
Soft soil.
Hard pencil.

[Verse 3]
I write unknown heritage.
The form is accepted.
I receive a number.
The number is on a stake
I push into the ground.
The stake is taller than the plants.
The stake is white plastic.

[Verse 4]
A man on the next plot
has been here for years.
He grows the same things.
He doesn't fill in forms.
He says he never has.
He says nobody comes.
He says it like a warning.

[Hook]
A small plot.
A long form.
Soft soil.
Hard pencil.

[Final Verse]
The seeds go in.
The stake stays up.
The bag is empty.
I keep the bag.