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