My Pepper Tree

by Tryn Peterson

She has stood in the yard forever

Like an old woman

All gnarled and bent with age,

Yet rooted firmly in the earth.

Never dying,

Never moving.

Except when she beckons to me

With those frail fingers

To come and sit among her branches,

Letting her familiar arms embrace me,

Listening to the wind rustle through

Her long and flowing hair.

So two women spend the afternoon together.

One old,

One young,

Both at peace with the world.