“U-Pick Orchards” by Danusha Laméris by Poem-a-Day | Poets.org - Audiobook
“U-Pick Orchards” by Danusha Laméris
By Poem-a-Day | Poets.org
Length1m
About this book
Summary
We used to pick cherries over the hill where we paid to climb wooden ladders into the bright haven above our heads, the fruit dangling earthward. Dark, twinned bells ringing in some good fortune just beyond our sight. I have lived on earth long enough to know good luck arrives only on its way to someone else, for it must leave you to the miracle of your own misfortune, lest you grow weary of harvest, of cherries falling from the crown of sky in mid-summer, of hours of idle. Let there be a stone of suffering. Let the fruit taste of sweetness and dust. Let grief split your heart so precisely you must hold, somehow, a memory of cherries—tart talismans of pleasure—in the rucksack of your soul. Taut skin, sharp blessing.