Les plus lus ▸
Dave Bonta
I dress myself in rage
at abominable dealings
I eat a bad apple a day
in a cold tavern
giving my apple core a toss
watching it arc
and land in a forest clearing
i think of you Dad
saying where should i plant
an apple tree today
a habit from boyhood summers
at your uncle’s orchard
continuing into your college days
on a motor scooter
with Mom exploring every mountain
and forest in Pennsylvania
the fall and only the fall
was for apples
culminating in your favorite
the stayman winesap
Brown hair,
Hazel eyes,
A smile like the sun.
She'd love to sing and dance for us,
And have more hoodies than she should. (duh)
Her favorite food would be green apples,
Oh, and she'd love to read and draw.
And anytime she sees a dog
We'll be hearing her name it all day long.
If she ever fell out of a tree
(which she will if she's like me)
She'd run inside and laugh it off-
"Don' worry daddy, I fine!"
And if she's like you,
I'll have almost no time on my hands,
Cause I'll be too busy keeping her out of trouble
every picture and note and smashed bottle cap
was thrown into a box hidden beneath my bed
behind shoes and blankets and laundry
so that i'd never have to look at it again
but i can feel it through my mattress
trying to seep back in my soul
so i think i'll shove some more crap under there
those sheets i meant to throw away
a rotting apple core
a notebook or two
and more and more and moreandmoreandmore
Roses are red
Violets are blue
That's what they say
but it just isn't true
Roses are red
and apples are too
But violets are violet
violets aren't blue
An orange is orange
but Greenland's not green
And pinkies aren't pink
what does it mean?
To say something's blue when it isn't, defiles it
But oh, what the heck, it's hard to rhyme "violet"
to peel an apple--
a store full of knives and swords!
ah, well--
Something inspires the only cow of late
To make no more of a wall than an open gate,
And think no more of wall-builders than fools.
Her face is flecked with pomace and she drools
A cider syrup. Having tasted fruit,
She scorns a pasture withering to the root.
She runs from tree to tree where lie and sweeten
The windfalls spiked with stubble and worm-eaten.
She leaves them bitten when she has to fly.
She bellows on a knoll against the sky.
Her udder shrivels and the milk goes dry.
My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose,
And the pear is, and so’s
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose--
But were always a rose.
Tinge of frost
kisses the grass,
apples catch the dew
on burning cheek.
Hot mouth shivers,
anticipation - sharp
teeth snag the skin
taste the bitter essence.
One should not have an orchard and
Not care for it; so she tries,
Even lurches from the depths of a chair
She's found at some thrift, pre-softened; from
Her house, warm or cool as she might wish,
Out into too much sun or too much rain; from
Under the kind roof of a porch she'd built,
Leaving tool after tool there to gather
Dust and webs, marks of a new will to
Neglect. Beyond the weed-bent fence, an
Orchard of sorts awaits her care, each
Task having skipped two years at least.
Hands grasp lopper and saw. She visits
Apple, quince, pear, plum, cherry, clipping
Vines, tall weeds, watersprouts, suckers;
Even designates branches for her stove.
All that is left is the Granny Smiths; she
Loves that they cling to their shivered tree,
Leaves long gone. Even the hens have left off
Trusting the sky to toss them sugar, and
Have retired to their tractor, pecking
At storebought feed in its styrene bin.
The winds whistle through, rasping
Ink-black twigs together; the apples nod and
Stub their green bellies. She
Lifts ten or so down, as if they were
Each one of her own breasts, tenderly
Filling her small basket. In the kitchen
They will sit shyly waiting their turn:
It is the season for other foods; in
Stoneware bowls, nuts and citrus
Talk among themselves in distant tongues.