Soul Midwife
apple boxes poverty land orchards
Long ago I worked at this orchard with a good friend that I had met at weaving school. That is a story for another day. These boxes! We filled so many of these apple boxes after full days picking and hauling and transporting in a tractor. Often we worked after being out at music late at night, contradancing, or breaking down in my old VW Beetle.
Soul Midwife
Found beside zucchini - pickles in a crock just inside the kitchen door
Friendship forming - as distraction of loves held us captured
Waking each day - me upstairs, you downstairs
The frost coming closer each day
Looking out over Poverty Lane - white old farmhouse surrounded by apples
The showers were ice cold - warmth was in the working
In the orchard - in the barns - next to the woodstove
Stacking wood - throwing firewood - scar on my finger is a wedding ring
Pulling on woolen socks - handknit hats - those confining boots - work
Later on stomping in boots - contra dancing late into the night on Halloween
Our food of choice was zucchini bread - pickles in the crock
Scooping off surface mold - a daily ritual
Poverty Lane Weavers - my fathers contribution of 300$ - yours from New Jersey
You kept weaving even after I had moved on - soul midwifing in my heart
Unexpected cars rolling backward down the driveway -
Migraines laying waste to another day of work - are you okay in there
Love snuck in through all the cracks - is it love at that age or lust
Walks in the woods with one too many - Tom Wessels before he was a nature teacher
Building his house - carved from extra curricular activities
Rock climbs - car rides - oatmeal so heavy you could plaster walls with it
Long talks into the night - a shaker table handmade by a local woodworker
Barn building - over the next ridge - hauling more than I could handle
Looking back - scent of apples in boxes brings me presently there
It occurs to me - looking back is cavernous - walking forward
~Linden of The Bone Lines
Poverty Land Orchards
The above images are from Poverty Land Orchard - a place I worked a very long time ago.