What I Learned in the Orchard

I watched an old man

pruning apple trees in December

laddered during snowfall

straining for the farthest branch

and realized I had not considered

that quickening is a year-round

lifelong commitment to growth

through paring back

So you

bygone year of want

you my bygone sister

buried expectations

in awful post-truth

It’s snowing

Still I ascend the highest rung

and start cutting

limbs leggily reaching for sun

because flowering requires tending

brings fruit for sustenance

and only now have I learned

what fruit from labor really means

That man has taught me a few things

For Mama Zen’s Words Count in the Imaginary Garden. My poem went long but I beg forgiveness as frankly that never happens! :)