PEAR TREE STUMP

I remember the year it gave all those pears.

It was its last year.

I think it knew what it was doing.

I think it knew what it was giving.

I think it knew that it was giving up.

I think it knew it was the ghost it was giving up.

Around the stump, shoots are growing up.

I don't think any one will ever become a pear tree.

It looks more like a delicate wrought iron fence.

It looks like the kind around the tombstones of the rich dead.

J.R. Solonche

J.R. SOLONCHE is coauthor (with wife Joan Siegel) of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). His poems have appeared in numerous magazines, journals and anthologies. He teaches at SUNY Orange in Middletown, NY.