Gillian Sargeant, Peonium, 48″ X 54,” oil on canvas
Horticulture
When you offered to make me happier than I am, I was elated
for unlike the smooth-skinned nectarine, my outer bark remained unshaven
and my coarse branches beckoned so overgrown for you to work upon.
What a fool I was to think that you looked beyond my blemishes
as you sawed off my strongest branches so I might have a healthier canopy.
And so well you covered my thin canopy with fine-mesh bird netting
before the thieving thrushes could bore holes into my bruised fruit
that I doubted my harvest could live without your care.
How was I to know they were cultivated only to ease your hunger?
Now I regret I was not raised in some other orchard altogether.
_______________
Anum Sattar
Review by Claire Scott
A lovely poem about an unconscious contract: you make me happy and I will let you hollow me out. I really like “my outer bark remained unshaven and my coarse branches beckoned.” The speaker loses himself/herself completely in this relationship. “What a fool I was.” I love the line “How was I to know they were cultivated only to ease your hunger?” I think you could end the poem here. A great line.