Sunday, June 19, 2016

From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee


From blossoms comes 
this brown paper bag of peaches 
we bought from the boy 
at the bend in the road where we turned toward   
signs painted Peaches

From laden boughs, from hands, 
from sweet fellowship in the bins, 
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent 
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, 
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat. 

O, to take what we love inside, 
to carry within us an orchard, to eat 
not only the skin, but the shade, 
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold 
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into   
the round jubilance of peach. 

There are days we live 
as if death were nowhere 
in the background; from joy 
to joy to joy, from wing to wing, 
from blossom to blossom to 
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.