The Vegetable Garden

The smell of manure,
of the sun on foliage,
of evaporating water,
rose to my head;
two steps farther,
and I could look down into the vegetable garden
enclosed within its tall pale of reeds -
rich chocolate earth studded emerald green,
frothed with the white of cauliflowers,
jeweled with the purple globes of eggplant
and the scarlet wealth of tomatoes.