late June, and winter is coming
late June, summer transparency apples call to me
to find them, wash them, chop them,
cook and process them into sauce,
adding enough sugar to marry
with their unmatched flavor and tartness
so that we can have an applesauce to enjoy now,
and, even more important, for the winter,
a time Appalachian cooks know will test our planning, our mettle,
we also buy the first South Carolina peaches,
blackberries, cucumbers, to savor now
and to craft into products that also reach toward the winter,
black bears are active now, here in the Smokies,
they, too, know that winter will come,
and woe unto any not well-fed enough to last
till spring reawakens the woods,
two weeks ago we heard, and then glimpsed, peregrine falcon,
an apex predator working its way back in to the web up here,
Earth, as Mother, has a lot to teach us,
may we be open to the lessons,
may we work hard to learn, to appreciate.
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