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forty pounds of moorparks
by
Grace Hughes Chappell


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apricots making perfume inside a crate
arrived from the house on the Smartsville Road

"apricots! already?"
people were apt to swoon,
"ah-h, apricots from a tree!"
— as opposed to ... from where? —
but I knew what they meant:
molten gold in the kettle
cooked down for the gods'
breakfast toast, summers past
all summers to come
stolen
saved
caught on a spoon

 

© by Grace Hughes Chappell.
Used with the author's permission.

 


Grace Hughes Chappell says, over the years, she’s been a mom, a daughter, and a sister, has taken care of ‘things’ (house repairs, car repairs, relationship repairs), worked as a private tutor, an English teacher, a travel agent, a receptionist, a telephone book delivery-person, a house cleaner, a reader to the visually impaired, a caterer, a snow-shoveler, and a writer. Her work is widely published and she is the author of ten mile creek almanac. For 50-some years, Grace and her husband, Don, have lived in northern California, in Mendocino County, and in San Francisco but, as of 2024, they have relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to be near family. Grace's advice for a good life is to be kind, enjoy your family and friends, don’t be a drag (laugh a lot, sing, dance, do anything
that involves music), read a lot, learn to cook a decent meal, watch sunsets and birds and dogs, find something to do for which you have some aptitude, then be willing to work hard at it!


Post New Comment:
ElizabethP:
I can almost smell them...Sigh... wonderful poem. Thanks!
Posted 07/16/2016 10:46 PM
Lori Levy:
Can taste the apricots.
Posted 07/14/2016 01:42 PM
AllegraSilberstein:
Yum...love that fruit fresh from the tree.
Posted 07/14/2016 01:39 PM
paradea:
Beautiful! Awakens the senses, and the heart!!
Posted 07/14/2016 10:21 AM
Janet Leahy:
This poem is delicious, love the perfume in the crate. Picked up peaches from a truck that brings them from Georgia yesterday, they also make perfume in a crate. Thanks Grace.
Posted 07/14/2016 09:34 AM
blueskies:
Just as a recent poem celebrating a dandelion 'shall never be the same', so it is for the apricots! Insightful & yummy. Thanks, Grace.
Posted 07/14/2016 07:30 AM
Newf:
Yes Katrina, the surely do. I can just taste them.
Posted 07/14/2016 04:43 AM
Katrina:
They do sound heavenly.
Posted 07/14/2016 03:00 AM


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