Day 349

Once you grew peaches.  Once
your children played in the orchard.
Once they sang in their classroom, 
they came home every afternoon
singing the songs they had learned.
You could hear the youngest child
sing under her breath, sing
to the cat, the chickens.  She held
the red hen in her arms, gathered
her eggs, sang to her every new
song she was learning.  Where
are the songs?  The classroom?
The hen?  Where are the peach trees
that now, in late September,
would be dropping their last
ripe fruit?