Lawrence Hall
Dispatches for the Colonial Office
LogoSophia Magazine – A Pilgrim's Journal of Life, Literature and Love
The Goddess and the Chainsaw
“Do not human spirits look out at you from every leaf and stem?”
-Firs, the loyal old servant who has been dismissed
Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
Chekhov wrote his farewell to a cherry orchard
And I speak a valedictory to my apple trees
Sweet Anna apples who gave good service for years
Apples and love for family, neighbors, and friends
We were all young, the apple trees and I
I petted them with pruning and pesticide
And sat under them on hot summer days
As they sang in the soft, susurrant breeze
The goddess Pomona approved our endeavors
And breathed upon us blessings and bees and birds
To swarm us with the ancient loves of Latium
When youths and maidens embraced beneath the leaves
The last tree died this summer
I had to chainsaw the remembered joys
and Pomona is no longer here
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