Larry Schug: "Crab Apple Trees"

             

I’m tempted to say these trees belong to me,

take credit for blossoms that gather sunrise

like stained glass windows,

because eighteen springs ago

I dug holes for a couple of scrawny seedlings,

spread their roots in a bed of manure,

watered them, supported them with stakes and twine

until the saplings could stand alone in the wind.

But now, the flowering crabs in my yard,

like grown children, have business of their own,

bumblebees to feed,

and small sour balloons to inflate

by the time autumnal flocks, robins and cedar waxwings,

come to them for sustenance.

My reward is in the way my eyes

gorge on brilliant blossoms,

the sweet aroma my nose inhales,

a rich dessert in a restaurant for the senses.

"Crab Apple Trees" by Larry Schug. Published in Community Connections, Spring 2004. © Larry Schug.

Photography credit: "Crabapple Tree, April 28, 2008," by Kathleen Connally (originally color).