From Blossoms

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 backgroud; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Li-Young Lee

response to addie

because i trusted you i gave my body to you
petals and skin and all
delicately peeled, open and bare.

you told me (you claimed) you wouldn't stay long,
but in your eyes i saw the ocean's expanse,
(reaching to the horizon, no, even longer)
i judged your waters to be ready, i judged me one with the sea

and suddenly
at that moment
you were astral, yellow,
you were overbearing like a sunburn
(superficial heat, the kind that simmers and then recedes)

embrace upon embrace, without invitation or reproach,
your arm holding, no, carrying my spine,
your roots reaching into, violating freshly tilled soil,

and i closed my eyes, i gave up me, i gave up everything
just like a good girl ought to

and i got lost (lodged) in your throat, between the music and the sea,
i couldn't find my face, i couldn't find the rest of me

you are missing, and with you went my body,
petals and skin and all
just an echo of persephone