ADHESIVES, FOR EARLENE

How often we overslept

those grey enormous mornings

in the first year of marriage

and found that wind and rain

had scattered palm nuts,

palm leaves, and sweet rotting crabapples

across our wildered lawn.

By spring your belly was immense

and your coloring a high rosy almond.

We were so broke

we debated buying thumbtacks

at the Elmwood Dime Store

knowing cellophane tape would do.

Berkeley seemed more innocent

in those flush days

when we skipped lunch

to have the price of Les Enfants de Paradis.

                                                                                    Robert Hass

                                                                        The Apple Trees at Olema