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. 



Lucia Cherciu is the author of five books of poetry, including Train Ride to Bucharest (Sheep Meadow Press, 2017), a winner of the Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize. Her work was nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and twice for Best of the Net. She teaches English at SUNY/Dutchess. Currently, she is looking for an agent for her novel. Her web page is http://luciacherciu.webs.com.








                                    

 

Home
Current Issue
Submissions
Contributors' Notes


Email this poem Printer friendly page

A CLOSER LOOK: Louis Jenkins

John Barr

Bruce Bennett

Jane Blanchard

Lucia Cherciu

Robert Claps

Don Colburn

Geraldine Connolly

Barbara Lydecker Crane

John Delaney

Peter Grandbois

Edison Jennings

Mary Ann Larkin

Daniel Lusk

Dave Malone

Laura Manuelidis

Ethna McKiernan

Dan Memmolo

Roger Mitchell

Paul Nelson

Richard Newman

Jean Nordhaus

Jennifer O’Riordan

Barbara Orton

Beth Paulson

Patric Pepper

Roger Pfingston

Michele Rappoport

John L. Stanizzi

Steven Winn

Rosemary Winslow

Richard Lee Zuras



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

 

 

 

 

 


Last Updated: Mar 10, 2021 - 2:35:35 PM

Copyright 2005 - 2021 Cook Communication.