Deep Trees

Joy 
 is a taste before

it’s anything else, and the body

can lounge for hours devouring
the important moments. Listen,

the only way
to tempt happiness into your mind is by taking it

into the body first, like small
wild plums.  - Mary Oliver

When I watched you climb
to the top of that plum tree,
my mind flooded with memories
of my grandmother
standing beside her beloved plum tree
in a bright yellow spring dress and gloves.
I imagined her standing beside me
 watching you climb to the top,
petals falling like confetti,
sticking to our hair.

His Great Grandmother, Mary Cook, in the late 60s.