The Innisfree Poetry Journal www.innisfreepoetry.org by Lucia Cherciu
The Apple Trees from Home
I didn’t know I already had everything.
Abundance and fear. Abundance of fear. I defied darkness. I had my health. I prayed to remember. I prayed to forget. I followed the light, sought the light in others. Tried to name the four kinds of pears grafted on my grandparents’ pear tree. Dreamed all night I was picking summer apples, cherries, plums from all our fruit trees I left behind. Why did you leave, asks my mother. Don’t worry, time will pass and soon you’ll come home again, my father used to say. I didn’t tell them I wanted to stay. I should have called more often. I should have sent more money. I followed the routine. Feigned a routine. I fasted. I ate my restlessness. I pined for a white porch that evaded me. I longed for a hundred kinds of grapes. I listened to the lingering litany of birds I couldn’t name and I laughed. Copyright 2006-2012 by Cook Communication |