Based on a photo of two summer squash by Edward Weston that hangs in the Yale Art Gallery, the poem was originally commissioned for an exhibit of poems inspired by works in that collection. Here is the poem.

Conversation

Edward Weston’s “Squash,” 1936

“Delve for me, delve down, delve past your body, crowned

by its hidden stem, like a shadowy alarm;

see how you vanish past our dark-shed charm,

throat over throat, ankle to ankle, bound

in our different arches, summer-nicked and browned

interlocking rings in the chain of wrist and arm.”

“Lie for me, lie. I want to feel you turn.

Mark out the summer’s bending month and learn

to cradle the concrete ground till it softens. Stay.

Measure me past my stem. Though your shadows churn,

close yourself over. Encompass me like clay.”

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