PLUOT
The farmer holds a black-purple fruit
hard as his fist.
What is it? I ask.
It’s not a hybrid –
this is important –
but a graft.
Bite into this – he says
rubs it against his shirt.
Dark skin shines
thickly against soft flannel.
Pink-orange flesh is
substantial against my teeth.
My tongue rolls
between a stretched groove tight
as a sprinter’s glutes.
I imagine forced merging
with another: a knife
slices into the stems
two cut pieces tied together begin
changing each other.
Sweet against their will.
~ First published in ‘Wild Apples’ an expired arts and literary publication
—
THE CALL
Crouch in that still meadow narrow rush
between rising hills open water small eggs
in nests pursed into willows.
Strange red-tipped cranes gurgle their warning
in grass-bent sunlight.
Mid-stream broken railroad ties
settle further a private angle
like a long marriage. Far from home
the cranes appear as tall
as you. Stiff with caution the pair
just dropped from their sky
into this unknown refuge.
If you surprise them in the wet sedge
stick legs bright toes graceful –
question everything.
Among the edging pines their calls weave
falling through tall necks like water
sifting under the broken bridge slow
and clear to its mucky bottom.
Love. You know how.
~ First published in ‘Canary’ a literary journal of the environmental crisis hippocketpress.org/canary
—
THE CASTLE ORCHARD
The apple is an ancient thing not older than a week.
A striped beetle crosses the page
and now a yellow bee on my blanket.
In the monastery the tower bell marks each
fifteen minutes for lonely saints’ bones chopped up
and stored in churches far from home.
Those who sleep long enough among the thick trunks
dream black ants laddering the bark
of this young tree to reach unripe fruit.
From the moss a new sprig of
tree pokes out like a lizard’s head.
The wind is because of the leaves.
Sleepers in the orchard know
being closest to rotting cores.
But don’t wake them.
~ First published in ‘Wild Apples’ an expired arts and literary publication
—
~ Karen Terrey MFA offers writing workshops and coaching for creative and business writing in Truckee through her business Tangled Roots Writing. For information on workshops and services see her blog at karenaterrey.blogspot.com and ‘like’ Tangled Roots Writing on Facebook.
