Celery Neglect - March 30, 2025

of all the veggies you purchase

I bet one gets the same attention

as a pile of leftover lumber

at a construction site

where one or two stalks of celery

meet your needs, you tuck into

a crowded drawer in the frig

the large leftover set of them

which through abandonment

gets pushed farther and farther

back as their crisp turns softer

and the light green, darker

until one day, while searching for an

onion or carrot, you stumble across

something long dead – in a limp bag

you find a black creature, rotting

then it dawns on you

the forgotten package of celery

you left in its cage and

allowed to waste away

knowing, I hope with some guilt

that it died agonizing and slowly

longing to be needed

in the light of day