I’d rather be the tree
Squash flowers
From “Squash in Blossom,’’ by poet Robert Francis (1901-1987). He lived most of his life in Amherst, Mass., in the Connecticut River Valley, New England’s dominant agricultural area
“Let the squash be what it was doomed to be
By the old Gardener with the shrewd green thumb.
Let it expand and sprawl, defenceless, dumb.
But let me be the fiber-disciplined tree
“Whose leaf (with something to say in wind) is small,
Reduced to the ingenuity of a green splinter
Sharp to defy or fraternize with winter,
Or if not that, prepared in fall to fall.’’