Broccoli wasn’t invented when I was a boy

its cauliflower brain cells

as dark as cabbage

and yet I saw an apparition

in the garden nursery

when all the soil was empty

except for winter cabbages and leeks.

It was the not-yet-invented vegetable

and yet no one I knew

knew it was edible.

It was the ghost of things to come

lurking in their minds

until some future cook-psychologists

could auto-suggest it

and others sell it

in their supermarkets

next to asparagus and sweet potato.