behold the unpopped harvests
from not-quite-popular,
quasi-crafty, semi-shabby
Midwestern places: Ridgway, Illinois,
Valparaiso, Indiana,
Marion, Ohio, Hamburg, Iowa.
zea mays everta! popcorn!
claiming ancestral home
in old New Mexican bat caves,
serving as elder shaman to corn on the cob,
in today’s plain-jane mason jars
quiet, contented yellow kernels
hold super volcanoes, Popocatepetls,
Old Faithful geysers within,
tough layers trapping aggressive steam,
popcorn builds its unbearable pressure
refuses to be constrained,
to split, explode,
burst forth, turn inside out,
pop, pop, pop
into blinding white
snowflakes and mushrooms
and fluffy flowers, fifty times
their original size,
full and freely non-GMO
among slave-trade maize GMO captives
of high fructose corn syrup,
animal feed, processed food,
with popcorn
remaining whole grain victor,
earthy, savory ancient
of the 21st century.