36 years ago, was it that long?
\nWe married the year before and lived the blue.
\nApartment, that is.
\nThe long shag carpet, countertops, and walls,
\nAll royal blue.
\nWe were happy there, on our own.<\/p>\n
So I potted plants, hung them in the light source,
\nThe one big window facing the courtyard.
\nI lined them along the window sill
\nOr hung them from hooks in the ceiling
\nWhere long fronds of spider plants
\nWould vine the window view.<\/p>\n
But you, being you, peeled a tangerine,
\nSat down at the blue couch under the window,
\nAnd ate that piece of fruit while reading the paper.
\nOnly too lazy to dispose of the seeds in the trash,
\nYou reached your arm behind your head,
\nAnd threw the seeds in one of the plants.<\/p>\n
Mystified at the new shoots one day,
\nI saw the rich green forming jagged leaves,
\nAmong the pale green rounded ones.
\nI watched it til it outgrew the little pot.
\nSo, I gave it its own, and then another,
\nAnd then you confessed what you\u2019d done.<\/p>\n
When we moved to the house, the standing pot
\nRested under the second landing window,
\nA long vertical rectangle to the roof.
\nClearly, it was a tangerine tree\u2014sans fruit.
\nEventually, we knew we\u2019d stay, even if
\nWe had to pay the mortgage with roommates.<\/p>\n
We were 23 when we planted her in terra firma,
\nAgainst the block wall we shared with the Germans.
\nThere she grew, filling the wall and beyond,
\nKeeping the drunken parties and naked jacuzziers
\nStripped from view as she rounded out her branches.
\nShe stood tall, encircled by cement along cinder block.<\/p>\n
Barren for 15 years, then one day they appeared
\nThe forest green balls grew tipped with delicate buds,
\nTiny white petals framing deep green mini golf balls
\nThat turned orange in the late fall, the first in October.
\nThe harvest was small but so sweet and juicy, pit free.
\nAnd her roiling roots under the cement rebelled.<\/p>\n
They rose up, buckled the cement, cracked open.
\nWe\u2019d been married for 27 years by then,
\nAnd though our marriage was rocky, the tree stood,
\nReady to weigh in, bend the cinder block wall,
\nUproot the cement yard square foot at a time.
\nWe had no choice, back then, but to accede.<\/p>\n
We put down the boxing gloves, took up the rototiller
\nAnd tore up the cement, repaired the cinder block buckle
\nSo the tangerine tree could grow up and meet them,
\nThe daughters we\u2019d birth and nurture strong and tall,
\nFor picking tangerines, and oranges, and tomatoes
\nTakes many arms and long, long, long patience.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
36 years ago, was it that long? We married the year before and lived the blue. Apartment, that is. The long shag carpet, countertops, and walls, All royal blue. We were happy there, on our own. So I potted plants, hung them in the light…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,441],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-poetry-prompt-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41612,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41609\/revisions\/41612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}