Game 78

CHI 103               ORL 105

The Loquat (or Japanese Plum) is a hearty, cold-tolerant, fruit-producing evergreen tree native to Texas

There is a loquat tree in my front yard.

It produced fruit--
Sweet tiny yellow plums--
For most of the first year
I lived here.

Making summer tolerable.

The sweet sticky-fingered finish-line
To every race home.

And then, suddenly,
It stopped.

Hasn't made fruit in three
Drought-filled
Years.

It’s flowered a few times.
A whisper--
Reminding me
Of something.

Far away.

Capable of so much more
Than casting this shadow--
Throwing this shade.

But then…
Nothing.

Pedals drop
Leaving an empty nub--
A broken promise.

Anger turned to
Grief to
Acceptance (however that goes)
Until I was grateful for
The memory of the fruit--
A quiet ghost--
and the flower, itself.

But this has been a rainy spring
On the tail-end
Of a long
Long drought.

And somehow,
Everything is different.

This time--
A memory returning--
Hard and green and patient,
Fruit.

I can almost taste it.