Fruit of the pear

Fruit of the pear
By Whittaker Chambers
April 7, 1926

Poems

I

Fruit of the pear — among the leaves
Wind lifts, the stiff spray of leaves,
Disclosing the hung red cheek of pear,
Last fruit the denuding autumn leaves —
Solidly sways, too firm to fall-
Reserved last plenitude of fall.
Leaves and the fruit will drop together;
But these dark leaves, before they fall,
Enrich to bloody growth apart,
Until, beneath one frost leaves part
From stems and, blackened, drop. The fruit,
Too, darkened in the bitten part,
Falls with a dull thud to the ground
Successive days. Where heels have ground
The pears to pulp late bees and yellow
Wasps fly fiercely: some are drowned. 1

Notes:

  1. Published under “Poems” I of II The Nation, April 7, 1926
 

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