Oregon’s Willamette Valley
A cozy peach orchard
Grass around the trees toasted
Late-summer brown, the smell of hay
 
I’m young, probably not even ten
Bending to gather
Windfall fruit for my mother’s
Seasonal canning work
 
******
 
She put up bushels in those days
Our kitchen
Hot and steamy for hours
At canning time
 
I recall one junior-high lunch
Feeling like the luckiest kid
With my masoned cherries
They were that good
 
My young life
My mother
A windfall

© by David M. Tookey.
Used here with the author's permission.