What Remains
We are newly married, live in an apartment, have no garden, but for entertainment we browse nurseries. On an impulse, we buy a small lemon tree to give to my parents for their back yard.
My father is not a gardener, and we have only a hope that the southern California sun and an occasional watering will be sufficient for the lemon tree’s survival. Dad, however, adopts that seedling, tending to its needs as a father to a child. Watering, fertilizing, pruning. It thrives, and through the years produces more than enough lemons for my parents and for us and neighbors. In his late years, living alone, Dad is neglectful of the house, but not the lemon tree. After he dies and the house sold, the new owners cut down the lemon tree to create an unencumbered back yard for their children’s play area.
lemon blossoms
swirling in the breeze—
a look back
to a memory sweetened
with the passing of time
Contemporary Haibun Online
