A POEM A DAY - UNDER PINE BRANCHES, PHOTO AND POEM




POEM BELOW

After a short walk on the hillside it was already too hot to go further so we rested under the shade of a great pine tree. I thought about the men who had cleared this stony ground, planting olive trees, sitting to eat their 'almuerzo' under the same tree. This inspired the longer poem below. 


UNDER PINE BRANCHES


In my shade the donkey rests,

freed from straw baskets carrying

water fresh from the 'fuente',

gushing vein of life in this boring heat,

even my deep roots struggle to

tap moisture, shared with my

olive friends, their silver leaves

whispering secrets as the

breeze lifts terracotta dust,

bronzing the sweat dripped face

of the growers, picking stones,

raising walls, lifting weeds.

They flop beneath me, tired now

from their daybreak trek, up, up

the donkey trail from the village,

shimmering in heat haze below.

Drinking deep the mountain’s blood,

they unwrap bursting red tomatoes,

oiled black olives, pungent cheese

magicked from roaming goats,

break crusty, hard bread, crumbs

left to the scrambling ants.



© 2019 Jacqueline Knight Cotterill.  All rights reserved. 

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