The Apple War
The red and the green,
Their pips on their shoulders,
Their skin brilliantine.
Uniform, orderly,
Saleable, ambitious –
Sala and Granny
And Golden Delicious.
Quarter them, they’re tasteless;
They’ve cotton-wool juice,
But battalions of thousands
Routinely seduce.
In shy hen-haunted orchards
Twigs faintly drum,
Patient as partisans
Whose time has almost come,
From Worcester and Somerset,
Sussex and Kent,
They’ll ramble singing,
A fruity regiment.
Down with Cinderella’s kind,
Perfect toxic, scarlet;
Back comes the old guard
Costard, Crispin, Russet.
James Grieve, Ashmead Kernel,
Coppin, Kingston Black –
Someone has protected them.
They’re coming back.'
~ UA Fanthorpe, 1929 - 2009
Garden Blogger's Muse Day is hosted on the first day of each month by Carolyn Choi over at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.
What a fab poem, and what a good job it is that someone has protected them or else all we would have would be the tasteless varieties in the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteLove it, Anna! How fortunate you are to have some growing in your garden. Apple trees are all around superb denizens, even without the fruits. The spring bloom is worth the space and the wood for smoking meats is unbeatable. Plus the branching is simply pretty. :-)
ReplyDeleteFrances
We just finished our first apple pie of the season, using home-grown apples. My husband is in the kitchen now, baking another one!
ReplyDeleteLove that poem! the idea of 'a fruity regiment' has stuck in my mind!
ReplyDeleteThe protectors are folk like Common Ground, and Ian Roger in Yorkshire... it has been a struggle and the fight is still on!
ReplyDelete