flowering quince

first noticed from my porch
one morning last spring
when the dawn yawned foggy n pink across the yard
strewn w pebbles a marrow bone graveyard
the skeleton of a fire pit
and chestnut husks
spiny urchins felled by gravity

your branches were bowed with the weight of it all
utterly dripping in blossoms
an embarrassment of beauty
calling to mind an old woman stooped over
with the weight of grocery bags

unable to contain their vital contents
technicolor fruit rolling out in every direction
winking brightly from the ground
a carpet of cast-off blooms shrouded your feet

and today, a carpet of chestnut leaves
dried and brittle
as I wedged myself under the rosebush beside you
thorns in my sides
thorns everywhere
to use my hands to free the crumbling leaves
from your tangled jumble of branches
clear the way for continuity
of flowering quince confetti blossoms on ground
where I sat and cried late last july
give me a fucking sign
i screamed into the twilight
and your cloud of sweet scent
drew a ruby-throated hummingbird
who hovered just inside my peripheral vision
on the left
before flitting away