I poke my head under the ground,
between the tall stalks of garlic and the chubby cauliflowers,
feeling like a giant peering into a doll’s house.
I find them all cuddled there,
safe and sleepy in their earthy cots,
under a cosy blanket of warm soil.
They remind me of constellations,
underground stars,
sipping scented herbal teas quietly from minuscule cups.
“Hullo,” I whisper, “is it time yet?”
“No!” they whisper back, heads shaking like little bells.
“We’re not ready yet!” mumbles one,
a green shoot already sprouting behind its ear.
“Mawbe chewmorro,” it adds, munching a tiny piece of carrot cake,
while in the blackness a worm tunnels past us
like a comet in slow motion.
I smile.
“Alright, I will wait for you.”

 

*

Filippo Rossi has loved writing ever since he could hold a pencil. A winner in the UNBOXED About Us poetry competition, his poetry has been published on The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network, Write On! magazine and in a number of anthologies. The Lost Cabbage is his first children’s book. He’s currently based in green and rural Devon where he likes to walk in fields and woodlands talking to trees and cows along the way.