Dispatches for the Colonial Office: Apple Trees

Thursday, October 15, 2026

Lawrence Hall

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

Dispatches for the Colonial Office