Fruit in Season

by Richard Hoffman

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That spring after my brother’s death

I worked in an orchard. Young, good

with a ladder, I pruned apple trees,

lopped crossed limbs, nipped spurs,

and comforted myself with the notion

my brother was busy underground

carefully disentangling the long roots,

season after season, tree by tree;

but now I know there are people

who tread the earth like water

because below them their dead

are trying to grasp their ankles

and pull them under, so I know

how lucky I am and how grateful

I ought to be: sick for long years

my brother begrudged me nothing.

for R.J.H. 1950-1972

Richard Hoffman

Richard Hoffman is the author of nine books, including the memoirs Half the House and Love & Fury; the story collection Interference and other stories; the essay collection Remembering the Alchemists and other essays; and five books of poems: Without Paradise; Gold Star Road, which won the 2006 Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize and the New England Poetry Club’s Sheila Motton Book Award; Emblem; Noon until Night, winner of the 2018 Massachusetts Book Award for poetry; and People Once Real.

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