The Age-Old Alchemy of Growing a Pumpkin

I planted a seed in the ground and mused on our shared origin

Illustrations courtesy of the author

There is a pumpkin seedling in my flesh. It bends and stretches with me each day, parallel to the tendons in my leg. Sometimes only the leaves peek above my shoe, but when I’m barefoot the roots show, too. Their beige threads trickle toward the earth beneath my heel — threads that, if it were…