“From the Ground Up,” a poem by Thomas Kneeland, is part of a series where Mirror Indy commissions local poets to capture the heart and soul of their favorite restaurants.
Kneeland chose Black Leaf Vegan, owned by married couple Taria and Derrick Slack. The restaurant opened in 2021 as a food truck, and a year later the family opened the restaurant Black Leaf Vegan Café in downtown Indianapolis at 335 W. 9th St.
from the ground up
by Thomas Kneeland
When family feels far away
& you’re finding it hard to savor
the taste of memories past, cradled
in spoonfuls of 50-year-old recipes
from your great-grandmother’s cookbook,
I hope you’ll have a friend like I did—
who poured sun into a bowl
& called it Mac-n-Cheese;
dug her hands into the earth
& massaged the soil until an avocado tree
reached for the skies, leaving behind ripe,
lush fruit to spread across buttered bread,
to refill my belly with earth memories
of ancestors who birthed my love
for kitchen & breath of music
that entered our home from blaring radios
of cars racing up & down the street
to show off candy paint jobs
& 24-inch rims on Box Chevys & New Edition
ringing in my ears to remind me
love in its purest form
comes from a garden worth watering.
About the poet
Thomas Kneeland is a Black poet, scholar, professor, artist and budding memoirist. Learn more about him.
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