For Virginia: poem and photograph by Isabel Chenot

"Orchard"

photo by the author, Isabel Chenot

For Virginia

who, at 87, can no longer see the orchard blossom

The ground that winter paled and barred

was femur colored, dry and hard.

I stood shy—wearing grey, not white.

The arches of the trees protracted out of sight

and they were veiled

so that each wave of sky—pellucid blue—was shelled

with blooms, and all the waves in files

were glistening. The empty aisles

of the earth were lit up, long, and wide:

no one else walked there.

I was alone in the cathedral where

like you—some spring, I'll be a bride.​

Isabel Chenot’s work has appeared in Spirit Fire Review, Assisi, Avocet,

Indiana Voice Journal, and Blue Unicorn, among other journals. Her books

include West of Moonlight, East of Dawn (her retelling of an old fairy tale)

and The Joseph Tree. Both are available on Amazon, and The Joseph Tree

is also available through Wiseblood Books.