POEMS
Anthony Sobin
PHOTOGRAPH: HOME FOR THE AGED
STOWE, VERMONT-1931
The men joke and whisper with the women
among the oaks and benches of the back garden
believing no one can hear them.
And in this photograph taken at dusk
their eyes are such a clear blue
it seems you can walk up the path
right into them
the blue spreading out all around you
like an azure sky in summer
alive with wasps and sunlight
and the ripe smell of yellow pears .
And suddenly it feels like you've been there before
as if you 'd just stepped through the door
to some childhood home and in that instant
remembered everything-
the soft wood floors
the aquamarine light in the fruit jars
and the smell coming through the windows
of the orchard gardens
where the chrysanthemums are cut back
a ll summer long then bloom in November
and go on blooming until the last blossoms
sink beneath th e rising snow like drowning men.
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