CHERRY RIPE! CHERRY RIPE!


             These cherries were once
          bunches of blossom — but now
             dark red drops of blood

             but in the mouth, taste
          that is the phantom of all
             these petals' perfume.

             One pair of cherries
          on two joined stalks —
             "marriage of true minds"

             having the same tastes,
          the same identical twins,
             inheritors of

             time's ancestral stone
          that one day may replenish
             odorous orchards.



           © James Kirkup, 2008





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