For Jacqui
I am roaming the farmers markets
for the last perfect peach of the year.
Sunday after Sunday I choose them carefully
line them up on my counter
and test them tenderly with fingertips
to feel the gentle give that promises
juicy flesh with perfect flavor.
October is late for this Grail
but California hands me many gifts.
In this tender afternoon
with the sun turning these clouds
to pink and blue
and I am relishing this,
perhaps perfect peach
and the phone rings
and I hear about my sweet friend,
mother, mentor and colleague
crossing over, quick
like she told me she would
and I go back to the sunset
and the peach
and I touch her with my heart
feeling every tender lesson
that she taught me
like how to love,
to live
and I am surrounded by that love
and the luck that I’ve had to
have her, so intimately
in my life
and this perfect peach
I savor
just for her.
with Aloha, Susan Grace Lawton, 2003
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