How to Prepare Garlic for Market

this is not how we look at the grocer…

photo: Darius Anton

cleaning garlic. black congeals under thumbnails. sticky dry. the grasshoppers careen into the soft-bristled brush crackling away the skins. crack. must make them white for market. crack. flakes float to the bottom of the tired dusty bucket. crack. fuzz cut, roots dismembered, broken. splayed naked, the garlic wishes to return home. black kitty mistakes a clove for a…