The History of Brussels Sprouts

This vegetable evolved from primitive

non-heading Mediterranean kraut.

It wrapped its crinkly little leaves about

its winsome, blooming face, and left to live

a classic Bildungsroman. Adjusting mien

and flavor, traveling north and west, it came

upon the gates of Brussels, took the name

that welcomed it. Gentlemen and lean

courtesans took into their mouths its tight

green jackets, endlessly disrobing, sheets

of luminosity pressed close. And fleets

dispatched to newer worlds carried wide

and far its seed. Like any immigrant,

it put down roots before it could repent.

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Marcela Sulak is the author of two collections of poetry, Immigrant and the chapbook “”Of All The Things That Don’t Exist, I Love You Best.” She’s translated three collections of poetry from the Czech and the French, and she currently directs the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

Poem contributed by our poetry editor, Christina Daub.

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