Can you whisper a song to me?
she said as she lowered herself,
but she always asked strange things.
I thought
the world was round
but her peaches were more real
than Columbus.
a name in a book or a hand on an arm
that was a choice.
just eat
and her insistence was like the steady flow of
Atlantic, Pacific, Indian tides.
in a textbook I found her name
just below a "sea"
it was her name (though her parents didn't know)
because I heard her mumble it
every time she planted things.
I thought
the peaches were unusually round
their taste would make her skin a dream
as unreal as Chris had been
when he kissed me over a history
textbook
and I bolted
when she touched me.
the bowl fell and peaches rolled
across her long wooden porch but she smiled
and said we could always plant more
we had a lifetime, didn't we
I'll pick them up, if you sing me a song
and I, the good pupil
remembered the sound of the waves she loved.
Landis Smithers
9-18-90
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