Ah, King, hello to you!

My husband who is on the forum told me you were leaving us and I was very sad, but I do hope you will enjoy some poetry on your sabbatical. (I tried to join the WS forum myself but was unable to do so as there was no response to my attempt.)

Anyway, even if it's a wary response, I'm happy to see your words pop up here. I stretched out beneath this tree and sought inspiration and finally saw a vague alphabet shape (cap. letter "E") to its trunk and branches, so I oriented it that way when I post-processed it. I even posted it on Flickr that evening entitled, "Alphabet Tree" thus there's no real gimmick meant, just me being ME.

Take care!
PJ Taylor

I'll leave you with a tree poem I wrote:

The Mice and the Lemon Tree

There are mice eating our lemons,
zesting the skins. Naked fruit is strewn
all over our patio and drive. They gnaw

the bark and whole branches wither and die.
My husband set out traps, though we never
touch the lemons—wishing instead for oranges.

The bite. The sour taste. I wonder how they live
on citrus. He baits the traps with cheese, still
they eat more lemons. I suppose the moon

could be one peeled, instead of Swiss. Only
one was caught, his corpse stiff, not much
bigger than the fruit it sought. I told my husband

leave them be; it’s just a another lemon tree.
And I hold no bitterness when more lemons
drop.

Tar Wolf Review