Description for Masae

A poem for spring

Photo courtesy of Takashi M/Creative Commons/Flickr

Description for Masae

There were white tear shaped petals 
caught in the space
where the stairs meet.

Others, like them, swirled 
about my body—
a small whirlwind

of delicate debris. 
Noticing the tree’s 
emptiness, I remember

the petals and describe them 
to Masae. “Plum blossoms,” 
she says, “but the flower

seldom blossoms
and the tree bears no fruit.”
Lovely name, isn’t it, plum blossoms.