Arachis Hypogaea

Arachis Hypogaea may have been

smuggled to North America by slaves

who hid seeds of survival in their hair.

Despite your nakedness, the chains, the stench,

if white men did not eat you, you might come

to a cruel land where, tended by moonlight

and exhaustion, your seed might grow to be

your children’s manna in the wilderness.

Arachis Hypogaea, or goober,

an annual preferring warmth and sun,

is an attractive plant, resembling clover.

It bears flowers of two distinct genders:

the staminate, or “male,” yellow, pretty,

and the inconspicuous pistillate “female.”

When fertilized, the pistillate turns down

and corkscrews six inches into the ground.

Each corkscrew, called a “peg,” grows one to four

peanuts in the soil near the mother plant;

each shell two of her shots at infinity.

From the laboratory of a slave emerged

a varied, balanced diet for the poor,

stock foods, ink, paints, cosmetics, medicines …

Promise and purpose, the Ancestors’ dream.

“The Peanut Man,” we say, and laugh at him.