picture book · the autumn shelf · returned in october
on the small pear tree in a small garden,
one pear remains. it has been the last pear for several days
now. the others were taken in baskets, or eaten where they fell,
or carried off by a particular bird.
this one has not been touched.
a child watches the pear from the
kitchen window after breakfast. their
grandmother watches from the door. the pear is, of course, no
longer ripe — it is only patient. the book turns slowly. on
the last page, an autumn wind comes,
and the matter is decided without anyone having to choose. the
kitchen still smells, the next
morning, of pear.
marginalia · in the back endpaper we have read this every october for four years. the pear is always still there. she likes it that way.