Sage

[Valerie Please]

Magpie,

I'm just glad a British person knows not to put tomatoes in the refrigerator.

Thanks for the read and the feedback, it's helpful. It hit me last night that I shouldn't be comparing her skin to her house dress at all . . . I should be comparing it to a lemon pound cake.

We'll see how the socks fall out of the dryer.

xo,
Val

Hi Valerie, there are many interesting aspects to this poem and some that I find slightly confusing, even after a few reads.
Good title again and some good images. I'm not so sure about the use of the white space, I don't mind it in the sense that it doesn't make it any more confusing to read, yet at the same time I can't see a purpose for it (does there need to be a reason for using white space -- whole other question I suppose). I'm rambling so I'll do a critique... 

Sage
The smell of my 
         grandmother’s kitchen…   -- I get the 'sage' title as having two meanings but for the beginning here are you saying that Grandmother's kitchen smells of sage also. It's hard to tell whether 'Sage' is the title and the first line or just the title. For me it would work as the first line also. 
and another also also, don't need the ellipsis after kitchen.

With her     -- perhaps don't need 'with'
               in a polyester house dress,
         her skin as soft -- same with 'her'
                as the gown’s 
                        colors were bright.  -- I'm finding it difficult to compare something being as soft as something else is bright. I get the extremes, but perhaps two separate similes or metaphors for her skin and gown.
         Her salt and pepper curls  -- might not need 'her' -- great image with 'salt and pepper curls' which ties in with the kitchen
                         in gold hairpins.

         Her sing-songy yodel
a jumble of
                 mountain stream ramblings,
as vivid flashes 
      of her silly youth   -- I find this section confusing although I like 'mountain stream ramblings' as an image. -- 'silly' seems at odds with the the title.
                 tumbled like
                 socks from the dryer -- yeah - Excellent image
       in her mind’s eye, -- could be seen as a cliche line
not registering 
                  the view 
                          of the backyard.

“Oh!” 
            She’d suddenly start
                  “I must have been
                                                 



                                 a million miles away” -- white space separation has a reason for being here, would it work better with a bigger separation

The warm tomatoes
      paid her no mind.
They kept on ripening
          in her sunny window.   -- could this be streamlined a bit? possibly something like

The warm tomatoes 
ripening
in her sunny window
paid her no mind.     -- also would they ripen 'in her sunny window' or 'on her sunny window sill' ?? It might be a British thing.

Just a few thoughts, cheers for the read.