a midwestern guide to familial communication

My father sent me a hanging tomato plant for my birthday.
You plant the seeds and then hang the device,
and all summer long you have tomatoes
for salsa or BLT's or whatever.
This is horticulture of a different sort,
we have the weather,
then we have the tomato status update,
then I ask about my mother,
then I hang up.

I'm thinking of getting him one of those bamboo stems
that grow out of water. Supposedly the chinese
believe them to be good luck.
We don't need luck, what we need is insurance,
against winter,
the sure death of tomato plants.