a wild apple orchard encountered in the forgotten wilds

From his new book, a collaboration with fellow Mountain State (West Virginia) poet Daniel S. McTaggart entitled PSALMS OF THE MONSTER RIVER CULT.

a wild apple orchard encountered in the forgotten wilds

walking past the tangled and mangled blackberry hells,
beyond the barn (I think it was a barn)
that collapsed maybe a decade ago and was never rebuilt
you come across the grey branches that dance
in winds that only they ever know about.

limbs bearing futile fruit for the insects and the hungry opossum,
who doesn’t mind the wasps when he hasn’t eaten,
who leave half-gnawed fruit scattered on the ground
like the lost underwear of the homecoming queen,
wet and waiting for the next marauder.

it is quiet here. a shrine to the God of nature.
evidence of a time when somewhen tended these rows
and harvested baskets of the fruit to market
or to make pies to delight the eyes and noses and tongues
of the grandchildren who moved away thirty years ago.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.