Plant your pear trees in winter.

Recruit the good neighbor or the better relative
To break the cold earth with a trusty spade.
Praying all the while, as the cold earth appears to kill all hope,
That life will go forward.

Plant your pear trees and pray that they will take root and grow.
Pray that come late March or early April
They will send out those signs of life
Upon which we all depend--
Green burgeoning from the branches,
Weak at first, but full of hope, and
Come June, they will signal
Every passing bee and wasp--
I am here--
Come, feed upon my beauty and live.

_____
--Jim Bolner, Sr.
October, 2001
 

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