©2004 Harvey H. Warwick III

Somebody dropped an eggplant on the sidewalk.
You don’t see something like that every day.
I never buy those things myself, and if I did I certainly
Would never throw one casually away.
Somebody dropped an eggplant on the sidewalk.
I really hate to see it go to waste.
I wonder, if I picked it up and took it home and washed it off
And cooked it up, how would an eggplant taste?
I’ve never had a hankering for eggplant.
I don’t eat many vegetables at all,
And those are carefully selected from a supermarket shelf
And are not ones somebody has let fall.
Somebody dropped an eggplant on the sidewalk.
It’s been out there for hours in the rain,
And if I leave it there to sit, the rain might wash the thing away
And it might end up down some sewer drain.
I wonder if whoever bought the eggplant
Realizes it is missing from their sack.
I wonder if that someone is still searching for it even now;
I wonder if that someone will come back.
Perhaps I’ll leave the eggplant on the sidewalk
For someone else might want it more than I.
It’s not like I don’t have some other things to eat that I prefer
So I’ll just leave it there, and walk on by.