the seed company sends their catalog
with 162 full-color pages of vegetables ready
to harvest. From snap peas and bush beans
to shallots and quinoa, plus every shape
and curl of leafy green—red ursa, red ruffled,
red Russian, Bolshoi. This is the same night
my son asks me as he falls asleep to explain
the difference between science and religion.
One, I say, is based on fact. The other,
I say, is based on faith. Though tonight,
as the temperature falls below ten,
and I regard the carrots, dark orange
and almost glowing off of page 29,
I begin to wonder how different
the two really are. I notice how the promise
of a slow-bolting, scab resistant
varietal sounds like a psalm I love—
the Lord, it says, will keep you from all harm—
and I look at the Royal Chatenays
and the Yaya Nantes and say out loud
to the dark kitchen windows and
to the cold winter air, I believe, I believe.