The Plum Tree by Ken Allan Dronsfield

How did the despair become

fluid for clear, dry eyes to shed?

Why did the burden on the heart

allow the stress and cause the beat

to finally stop now limp to the touch?

I've learned to live bringing such pain,

to bear as a heaviness and darkness

conjoin in a ripe nectar squeezed from

my mind creating an apathetic caste.

In these times of death, we hum our

dirges and become oracles of peace

while pounding that holy black book

forever bound by the millions of souls.

Remorseful, I've learned to inhale deep

as I await my turn to be quickly plucked

from that great plum tree of life, ripe as

I search for an epistemic loftiness below.

Ken Allan Dronsfield is a disabled veteran and poet from New Hampshire now residing on the southern plains of Oklahoma. He loves thunderstorms and time with his cat Willa.  He is a three time nominee for the Pushcart Prize Award and twice for the Best of the Net for 2016-2017.