I stumbled upon the source of cold
quite by accident this summer
passing an almond orchard near my home.
Late in the afternoon on a hot summer day
I was biking a rural road
past the neat matrix of trees
arranged like atoms in a crystal.
Is there magic in geometry
that can cool the air?
Is it something about almonds?
Would olives or oranges do as well?
I remember walking in orange groves
in my youth and far away,
dark sturdy leaves masking globes like suns
stars clustered in dense green gas.
Theirs was a different magic,
spawning spiders at dusk;
thousands of orb-weavers
casting nets between every pair of trees.
Were they trying to catch us?
We made our escape in gathering twilight,
wrapping ourselves in panic fine as silk as we ran.
Comments
Michael Mayhew
November 28, 2012
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I remember this story!
Way back from the vey early days of high school either you or Carey told me about the two of you adventuring in an old orange grove and walking through massive spiderwebs. Beautiful and icky-creepy at the same time.