The lemon tree in your backyard

By: Ruby Browning

The lemon tree in your backyard

grows only rocks.

You’ve always heard about life giving lemons,

so you’ve been on standby with an empty glass for the aid you were promised,

but some day you have to accept that nobody is coming but the vultures.

Your lemon tree drips shadows on your garden wall and bleeds heartached blossoms

over the grass.

when the sky lightens and the air warms, you will wait

hands outstretched for that bright yellow sunshine and will come away cradling decay.

You thought you could dig around the dead thing but it blocks the light too well and the rest of the

garden is choking.

Someday you will realize you have to move, find a new place,

meet a neighbor with lake leaf eyes and flowerbed cheeks

one with a sunlight smile and raindrop laughter

Plant a new lemon tree.

Paint your thumb green and don’t worry about washing it off.

You will find yourself able to climb to branches you could only ever reach for before

and this time when you slip, there is a water balloon to break your fall

and when you land flat on your back like the crash star you are,

you realize you have never seen this many perfectly ripe lemons before in your whole life.