The candle on my desk smells of McIntosh apples – of home in the fall, when the indoor market is full to the gunnels. Its ceiling a crisscross of beams, stays to hoist a mainsail. Along the aisles – on a downhill slant since before I was born – are the first fruits of colour. Pumpkins, gourds, apples. Things we carve.
Every McIntosh the direct descendant of a single Canadian deciduous.
From my window here, a courtyard of trees – I see ten without trying. The maples are still green; the pines too, as always. I am a maple tree. I know enough of the bone months.
They grow tall without trying. I grow tall.
Somewhere back home, my points of origin are sitting down to supper. They have faces, names. Their own rings.
How far falls.
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