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Eudora Welty

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Friday, March 20, 2020

String Bean Breakdown


First, you have to pick the crop 
bending your back
Until it aches,
a mess of string beans

Under a hot sun
bean picking fun
Will make an awful sweat
break out

If you finish a row
and you don't need to hoe
You might take a break
before you too snap

Like the beans 
in your lap

On a newspaper sheet
after they're cleaned
Leaving only the smell
of sweet earth.

I start on one end
with knife
And pull the string
to the other

Others snap the
end and pull
One side
or the other

Though I think that
a wasteful and dull way.

No longer a string bean
just green
Break it in the gap
between the beans

It should
make a loud snap
Not a quiet
crack and bend.

Then throw your snapped
beans in the tub between
The other bean snappers
breaking down a mess.