McIntoshes by Pearl Pirie

August 18, 2022
Poet name: Pearl Pirie Poem name: McIntoshes Poem: orchards don’t know that someone claims them. they know when they are bitten and signal other trees to defence. they probably sense when their flowers are pollinated. the sapling I watched grow from my bedroom window is taller than mom’s old house. I will savour the applesauce frozen since last season. it was made from mom’s tree and so she feeds me after her death. she doesn’t know how the applesauce I made turned out. simplest thing, she said there’s no way to ruin applesauce unless you write poems until the fruit burns the air. I didn’t, this time. the tree of course does not know me even less so the person who now owns the land of its roots and mine. take another nibble. we could add more sugar to be like her sauce, but won’t. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Pearl Pirie Pearl Pirie the author of footlights (Radiant Press, 2020), the pet radish, shrunken (Book*hug, 2015), Thirsts (Snare, 2011), been shed bore (Chaudiere Books, 2010), and dozens of chapbooks. You can follow her on twitter at @pesbo, or at Instagram and Patreon as pearlpiriepoet. News and resources can be found at her author site www.pearlpirie.com