Inside the Refrigerator

Lucky Cabbage

Half a cabbage, shadowed low and deep,
Wrapped in plastic took its chance to grow,
Stretched its leaves, awoke from cabbage sleep
Near cheese forgotten also long ago.
We found it and then found a pot and so
A cabbage we once ate, one half of two,
Turned into one again with light and grew.

Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Lillian is hosting and she asks us to look at what’s in our refrigerator.  The poem is written in Chaucerian stanza (also called rime royal or rhyme royal).  I will be using this form for Thursday’s Form for All post.

Photos: “Lucky Cabbage”, above, and “Half Cabbage in a Pot”, below, by the author.

Half Cabbage in a Pot

Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

75 thoughts on “Inside the Refrigerator”

  1. Excellent work, Frank. I really enjoyed it. ‘Cheese forgotten also long ago’ seems rather archaic, but since it is scooped in with a modicum of humor, it doesn’t really matter too much. Love ‘awoke from cabbage sleep’.
    Been absent from blogging as working on my writing portfolio. Will comment more regularly soon.
    Have a great day!

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    1. The writing portfolio is important. Best wishes on your writing. Blogging can take up a lot of time. I’m glad you enjoyed the poem and I agree the phrase about the cheese sounds archaic. Thank you, Ronnie!

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  2. “cabbage sleep” …. hmmmm….I’m wondering if that’s different from rye bread sleep (way in the back of the fridge) or lemon-half sleep, in the bottom of the fruit drawer, smothered in saran wrap and growing some tart something! 🙂

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    1. The rye bread might not be able to grow anymore except as a base for whatever that stuff is that grows on stuff when left too long in the refrigerator. The cabbage I suspect was protected by the plastic which acted as a sort of greenhouse. Thanks, Lillian, and thanks for hosting!

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  4. You fooled me with the ‘near cheese’ – clever line break. This is delisciously written and I really love the Chaucerian verse! (I completed your Challenge and am holding it for Thursday.) Lovely photos, as ever.

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    1. I can see onions and garlic doing that. I didn’t think cabbage would, especially after being cut in two, but now I wonder what else might grow in there (besides mold). It’s good to have a green thumb! Thanks, Walter!

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    1. I think having it in plastic protected it. I do think it was “sleeping” or dormant since I understand plants do that, but I don’t know the science. I hope its dreams were pleasant–if it dreamed. Thanks, Peter!

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  10. Congrats! I know you aren´t a fan of Pablo Neruda, but he wrote some humorous odes on unusual ode sujects. Now I defy you to compose an “Ode on the Cabbage” to round it up.

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    1. Considering what that cabbage went through in the refrigerator, I probably owe it an ode. I’m going to have to look up what an ode is and maybe use that as a prompt form as well. I’ll see if I can find Neruda’s humorous odes. I did read him in the early 70s when I was trying to learn Spanish in Mexico. Thanks, Danik!

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    1. Yes, potatoes grow as well. The cabbage was near some old cheese. I don’t know what “near cheese” is either. If I use this poem again, I will have to fix that potential source of confusion. Thanks, Mary!

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  16. really? Cabbages can do that? We have successfully planted sad and yellowed scallions, and even celery. Nice to know cabbages can be ‘resurrected’ too. 🙂

    I agree with the others when they say that your piece is also a poem of hope.

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    1. It was on the low shelf in the back and so out of easy sight. It was also wrapped in a plastic bag which I think might have protected it in some way. I may have to try a science experiment and see if we can reproduce the results. Thank you, Kathy!

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  20. Lovely to read about a happy cabbage that has grown again. I thought about doing this with carrot ends and now I know it works, that’s a plan! Thanks Frank! I love the personification in ‘Stretched its leaves, awoke from cabbage sleep’.

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    1. I think plants actually do “sleep” by some definition of that word. I don’t know if that is what it was doing in the refrigerator. I haven’t tried it with carrots, but I suspect they would work as well. Thanks, Kim!

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    1. I didn’t think that was possible either until we saw the cabbage in the back of the bottom shelf with a leaf growing out of the flat portion which was facing up. It was in a plastic wrapper. I think that protected it. I haven’t tried to repeat the experiment, but I suspect it should work if one takes half of a cabbage and plants that directly with the cut side up and skipping the refrigerator phase. Thanks, Sarah!

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    1. We eat little cheese (or dairy). That is probably why we forgot we had it. I didn’t know that lettuce would regrow, but given what I saw with the cabbage, it should. Thank you!

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  33. Falls of Passion Flowers
    Glow Red In Pure Nature Flow
    Climate Change at Hand
    Summers Never
    Ending
    Winters
    Never Coming
    it seems.. this year
    only one Passion Flower
    at Ground Reach and one
    in Top of Tree Vine almost
    too far to see.. Culture
    Giveth
    Culture
    Cancer Taketh
    Beauty Away A (the)
    Lion of Nature Roars
    Back Paul Revere i Am STiLL HeAR..:)

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