The Day of the Peach
2006
Oil on linen
36 x 25-1/2 inches


The day of your Memorial
I took a walk in the orchard.

We walked together, down the aisles of trees I have cared for
and turned the corner at each end, to come back up the next row.

There on my left
was a Peach,
half eaten.
And there, stuck by its neck
to the fruit net on the tree
the same
Western Tanager.

Once again with me,
bleeding
at its neck.
I knelt down and pulled,
tugged,
realizing the holes in the netting were too tight for him to escape.
I put my teeth onto the netting at the neck of the bird and bit
to open the plastic wire.

It bit me.
I prayed.
Mercy, please.

I begged,
release this bird,
let him live!
I freed this little bird,
released from the netting into my hands,
the two together
held up high to the SKY.
The bird flew straight up and away.

He was gone,
freed at last.