Catechism with Medlar Tree
Wild ginger keeps its flowers hidden
and at night the coyotes tread close
to the house and sing. In Arkansas, a woman
happens on an unfamiliar tree, sends details
to a horticulturist, is told it’s impossibly rare. What was it
you forgot, then started again
to remember? The medlar’s winter-
battered fruit clings to branches
even in January, is best for eating then.
Rose family, close kin to hawthorn.
Bletting: the process of ripening
past ripe. That other word, untranslatable,
meaning something like homesickness.
In woods, to see between the trees
until you can’t, or go quiet
inside the coyotes’ womb of sound. To take
the chastened fruit in both your hands, say
if you taste cinnamon, spit out the inedible seeds.
KASEY JUEDS is the author of two collections of poetry from the University of Pittsburgh Press. Read more.