Issue 11
Sigh
Patricia Wellingham-Jones
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With a Sigh
With a sigh of relief so huge
it rattled the leaves on the sycamore trees,
she smiled at me over her tri-tip sandwich
and said, Thank heaven. Harvest is finished.
We prattled over this and that,
solved world problems, clucked
about kids, then she sighed again
and said, Now we start pruning.
I didn't understand that sigh
until she listed 500 acres, 40,000
prune trees, $60,000, 200 cuts per tree,
and the horde of men climbing ladders
until their knees locked in pain, arms
froze in a crook at the end of the day,
and they hated the sight of bare limbs.
All so the green evidence of their sweat
could go home as slips of paper
translating to beans and tortillas,
clothes, maybe firewood, home
to their families in Mexico.
~Patricia Wellingham-Jones
Patricia Wellingham-Jones is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, author of Don't Turn Away: Poems About Breast Cancer, Apple Blossoms at Eye Level, and Welcome, Babies as well as editor of Labyrinth: Poems & Prose. She has been published widely in print and online journals and anthologies. Email.
© 2003 by Patricia Wellingham-Jones. All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2003 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.