Nocturne Cabbage

Susannah Blaxill

Nocturne Cabbage

Cabbages catch at the moon.
It is late summer, no rain, the pack of the soil
cracks open, it is a hard summer.
In the night the cabbages catch at the moon, the
leaves drip silver, the rows of cabbages are
series of little silver waterfalls in the moon.

Carl Sandburg

from "Rainbows are Made"

Cabbages in the moonlight. That’s right. If you don’t think such a thing can be beautiful, you’d be amazed. Cabbages leaves have a strange surface – water droplets bead together on them like translucent pearls, and the feel of them at times is close to that of human skin. And as Carl Sandburg shows us, in certain light they have an unearthly sheen. I love this poem for the way it takes the veil from the commonplace. Cabbages, of all things, beautiful? Oh yes. More than that. Magic.