Stoning Cherries.

 Stoning cherries.

10 years ago we planted a cherry tree

Thin stick on an unpromising slope

For the blossom, for the fruit, if it ever came.

Each year the stick thickened

The trunk glossy and banded with fine bracelets of silver,

Yielding just a few small cherries.

This year it is finally heavy with fruit

Little globes, still sour , that explode in the mouth.

I stand by the sink, watch the flies on the pane

And push the stones out of each fruit.

The juice runs through my fingers,

The punctured flesh sticks under my  thumb nail.

My hands are clumsy,

but they slowly find the stone

in every fruit,

The stones are discarded in the sticky sink and,

Left behind  is a heaped bowl of broken cherry flesh,

jewel red and succulent.

Worth the wait.

Cathy Cooper 2020

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