Because You Had Fallen From a Horse I Carried Your Bag of Apples
for Emily
I upset perfection
Reaching up to the branch above
Looking higher into the blue chill of depthless sky
Pulling down a golden crisp globe toward me
That left its world of blossom and fruit easily
As a thin strap of silk snapped from a bare shoulder
A pale rose apple to my lips and gnash
The beginning of sweetness spreading
From its core to my core …
All the rest of that October morning –
The hasty watercolor I tried
From an overturned crate
The opened barn door
a cider press humming within its darkness
The group of little school children
Chirping like larks
Being led from one orchard corridor of light to the next
I won’t remember any of it
Only the heft of the cloth bag
I carried toward you back up the hill
About the weight of a newborn
Toting it up toward you smiling
And you smiling back