Crops: Tobacco

hornworm hooked beneath

            a lean green tobacco leaf

                       undulating loss

black back bowed and hooked

            swaying to pick that leafing

                       for dip, chew, and piping

infant of commerce

            nurtured, suckered foliage

                       lucred link in chain

tobacco, ’bacca

            backbreaking hallowed smoke

                       cook these hands, this body

the rhythm of days:

            tobacco they once stripped, cured

                       now chew, and then spit