Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire
Titled after Satie
I.
Three pears ripen
On the ledge. Weeks pass.
They are a marriage.
The middle one’s the conversation
The other two are having.
He is their condition.
Three wings without birds,
Three feelings.
How can they help themselves?
They can’t.
How can they stay like that?
They can.
II.
The pears are consulting.
Business is bad this year,
D’Anjou, Bartlett.
They are psychiatrists,
Patient and slick.
Hunger reaches the hard stem.
It will get rid of them.
III.
The pears are old women;
They are the same.
Slight rouge,
Green braille dresses,
They blush in unison.
They will stay young.
They will not ripen.
In the new world,
Ripeness is nothing.
Copyright Credit: Brenda Hillman, “Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire” from The White Dress. Copyright © 1985 by Brenda Hillman. Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source: White Dress (Wesleyan University Press, 1985)