English plums
FOR ten long months throughout the yearI'm blue as plums from Europe areBut now at last the season's hereWhen glorious English plums appear.
I just ignore the substitute
The horrid, hard, bruise-coloured fruit,
All that the foreign farms could yield
And waited for soft, juicy, sweet
And perfect English plums to greet
Me at the farm shop once again.
No other fruit tastes half as sweet,
As that caressed by English rain.
Tony Gardner
Shoreham-by-sea