That touch of appleblossom pink

Apple blossom season is almost over, but some of the small fruiting spurs lower on the tree are just now blooming. I took these pictures just this afternoon. Unlike the plum blossom buds, the apple blossom buds are that lovely soft pink.It makes me want to write a song!

Apple Blossoms

One evening in winter
when nothing has been enough,
when the days are too short,

the nights too long
and cheerless, the secret
and docile buds of the apple

blossoms begin their quick
ascent to light. Night
after interminable night

the sugars pucker and swell
into green slips, green
silks. And just as you find

yourself at the end
of winter’s long, cold
rope, the blossoms open

like pink thimbles
and that black dollop
of shine called

bumblebee stumbles in.

Susan Kelly-Dewitt

 Poem reprinted from To a Small Moth, Poet’s Corner Press, 2001,

I must reveal that I found this poem using Google. I had forgotten to mention the bees. I never stand by this tree without hearing them, under the blue, blue, blue California aky.