Crabapple Blossoms

MY ROOFTOP GARDEN

The other day (Tuesday, 4-7-2020) in a post on my personal Facebook (FB) Page, I mentioned that I had just remembered that April is National Poetry Month and shared a Mary Oliver, then I made a commitment to post a poem (or lines from a poem) every day (on Facebook) during this month.

Because a strong wind knocked down my crabapple tree last night (as see in the photo atop this entry photo which was also included in a posting story in my Friday evening Facebook post on my business page, I've decided today would be a good time to share the poem Crabapple Blossoms, by Carl Sandburg.

Here it is:

SOMEBODY’S little girl—how easy to make a sob story over who she was once and who she is now. Somebody’s little girl—she played once under a crab-apple tree in June and the blossoms fell on the dark hair.

It was somewhere on the Erie line and the town was Salamanca or Painted Post or Horse’s Head.
And out of her hair she shook the blossoms and went into the house and her mother washed her face and her mother had an ache in her heart at a rebel voice, “I don’t want to.”

Somebody’s little girl—forty little girls of somebodies splashed in red tights forming horseshoes, arches, pyramids—forty little show girls, ponies, squabs. How easy a sob story over who she once was and who she is now—and how the crabapple blossoms fell on her dark hair in June.

Let the lights of Broadway spangle and splatter—and the taxis hustle the crowds away when the show is over and the street goes dark.

Let the girls wash off the paint and go for their midnight sandwiches—let ’em dream in the morning sun, late in the morning, long after the morning papers and the milk wagons—
Let ’em dream long as they want to … of June somewhere on the Erie line … and crabapple blossoms.

As for I've had my crabapple tree, I've had her since 2016 and have published several blog entries about this fact. Over the years and to this very day, wildbirds have enjoyed being in her "arms" including house sparrows...

HOUSE SPARROWS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

...house finches...

HOUSE FINCHES HAVE A STORY IN VOL ONE

HOUSE FINCHES HAVE A STORY IN VOL ONE

HOUSE FINCHES HAVE A STORY IN VOL ONE

... and northern mockingbirds.

NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS HAVE A STORY IN VOL THREE

NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS HAVE A STORY IN VOL THREE

For your information, all of the bird types seen here are featured in my three volume book series, Words In Our Beak.

MY BOOK SERIES

As I've been saying here on Blogger, "During this time where many people are confined to their homes due to lockdown restrictions (re the coronavirus pandemic), these books (whose stories are set in my rooftop garden) are great to have around as a reminder that there is still so much beauty in our fallen world."