by Sylvia Pollack

 

The apricot’s in bloom again,

old gangly tree that crafts

 

a single fruit or two each year

yet decks herself in copious flowers,

 

eager for pollen though there’s not

another tree for miles

 

to partner her.  Still, she keeps

blooming, year after year.

 

It’s her nature, not a conscious choice.

She never said “I don’t do blossoms any more.”

 

Deciduous, driven, her moss-mottled

branches intertwined like nests,

 

she lifts her thousand blossoms

to the sky, says “Use me.”

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Sylvia Byrne Pollack, former cancer researcher and mental health counselor, now has more time for poetry and other enjoyable things. A Pushcart nominee, her work has appeared in Floating Bridge Review, Crab Creek Review, Solo Novo: 12 Days and Clover: A Literary Rag among other print and online journals. She received the 2013 Mason’s Road Winter Literary Award for her poem “Gregory” and was a finalist/medalist for the 2014 inaugural Russell Prize.