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“Improvised Compost” by Anastasia Stelse
All summer we tended tomatoes: stakedstalks as verdant leaves unfurled, veinsspreading into the fingertips of new growth.We watered, fertilized, filled plots with lovetokens and improvised compost—crushedeggshells, snippets of hair, orange peels.When the first leaf wallpapered itselfyellow, we plucked it. Washed our hands.But leaves kept turning, curling. We snippedbranches. I didn’t think I’d lose the plant.*Anastasia Stelse is a native of southeastern Wisconsin,
