Small Packages Poem by Lois Read

The hickory nut
has much to teach
about the specialness
of 'small'

I used to pick them up
on morning walks,
tiny nuts, green husks
split open from their fall,
crack them open on the hearth
pry with pick
for hours and hours
extracting sweet and smoky meat
bits of undiluted zest
tucked away in
the labyrinth within the shell,
savoring each peice
celebrating successful removal
of unbroken halves.

They are too small
to be commercially viable.
Time and motion study engineers
would laugh at the thought.
But if they were
and I found them
pre-picked and packaged
on super-market shelves
I wonder
would I find the taste
so sweet?