Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia
Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
The Goddess and the Chainsaw
“Do
not human spirits look out at you from every leaf and stem?”
-Firs,
the loyal old servant who has been dismissed
Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
Chekhov
wrote his farewell to a cherry orchard
And I speak
a valedictory to my apple trees
Sweet Anna
apples who gave good service for years
Apples and
love for family, neighbors, and friends
We were
all young, the apple trees and I
I petted
them with pruning and pesticide
And sat
under them on hot summer days
As they
sang in the soft, susurrant breeze
The
goddess Pomona approved our endeavors
And breathed
upon us blessings and bees and birds
To swarm
us with the ancient loves of Latium
When
youths and maidens embraced beneath the leaves
The last
tree died this summer
I had to
chainsaw the remembered joys
and Pomona is no longer here
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