Espalier – a poem by Lisa Rhoades

Espalier

 
If I could fix hope  
to a trellis, I would tie 
the branches 
in the direction of love, 
pruning what reaches away, 
patient as someone 
who expects to be around, 
and the tree would answer 
with dense blossoms 
and the mouths of the blossoms 
would fold into the fruit, 
and the fruit would hang 
in a pattern of great beauty, 
and it would be enough, 
it would feed the world.

Lisa Rhoades is the author of The Long Grass (Saint Julian Press, 2020) and Strange Gravity (Bright Hill Press, 2004). Recently poems have appeared at Thin Air, American Journal of Poetry, Psaltry&Lyre, Saranac Review, and SWWIM. A pediatric nurse, she lives on Staten Island.