Sunday, March 29, 2020



Volunteer
                
Nobody planted her
a bird shit out a peach pit
while stealing holly berries
and this maverick
poked her head out
from the holly bush
two springs ago





I had the shears ready
but couldn’t cut
beguiled by the deep fresh
pink of her blossoms
   riotous pink
and so early coming
I left her there  


















Last summer I asked
the Mexican yard man
to take her down
but he said he couldn’t
   held up one branch
its leafy underbelly
heavy with pale
fruit pods

that in August
ripened   their
perfume drifting
on the air  ambrosial
the peaches  small
and blushing
their white fruit
three bites of
heaven



Now she springs back
   her ravishing blooms
shame the pest-weary
weeping cherry
























and the old apple 
tree who
couldn’t muster
this year and cringes
under a scourge of lichen 




pix and poem copyright Cathy Larson Sky 03/29/2020