A peach tree nears the end of life.
Across decades she has fed lovers
and children, squirrels and crows.
For one final season of abundance
she will give sweet sustenance
until none is left.
Branches creak
under the weight of a thousand swollen drupes,
leaves tremble, with every breeze
she may release her bounty,
offer her ripened flesh
to fortunate foragers and unsuspecting passers-by.
It is her desire
to be picked clean
stripped of her bark,
her naked essence returned to the earth
to nurture what comes next.