Being orange trees

Lee-Ann Fialkov

Maybe we shouldn’t sit here so neatly. Like a neatly drawn
line.
Like oranges lined up on a windowsill. Oranges from orange
trees.
But we were children then, and we were our own trees,
waiting in turn
For someone to claim us. For someone to free our heavy arms
and take
Our love home. In carts and wagons, trucks or buses. We
just needed
to be freed. It was easy then, to be orange trees. To hold
our arms up
towards the sun and to ward off enemies with our fingers
and our
smiles, while real children drove by on bicycles or on the
back of
trucks; without fruit, without the weight of soil at their
feet. We
stood silent but proud. Proud and neat. Like trees watching
the
seasons pass us by as children got older and inherited
brothers and
sisters. But we were children then and we were our own
seasons.
Windswept and raked on the outside. Damp and raw on the
inside.
All the time waiting for the harvest as we dreamed of
toffee and
Lipstick kisses, coffee cup stains and the backs of cereal
boxes.
But we were children then and waiting was just a game. A
game we
played neatly. In a line. While being orange trees.

back    /     to the top

© Kopiereg in die ontwerp en inhoud van hierdie webruimte behoort aan LitNet, uitgesluit die kopiereg in bydraes wat berus by die outeurs wat sodanige bydraes verskaf. LitNet streef na die plasing van oorspronklike materiaal en na die oop en onbeperkte uitruil van idees en menings. Die menings van bydraers tot hierdie werftuiste is dus hul eie en weerspieël nie noodwendig die mening van die redaksie en bestuur van LitNet nie. LitNet kan ongelukkig ook nie waarborg dat hierdie diens ononderbroke of foutloos sal wees nie en gebruikers wat steun op inligting wat hier verskaf word, doen dit op hul eie risiko. Media24, M-Web, Ligitprops 3042 BK en die bestuur en redaksie van LitNet aanvaar derhalwe geen aanspreeklikheid vir enige regstreekse of onregstreekse verlies of skade wat uit sodanige bydraes of die verskaffing van hierdie diens spruit nie. LitNet is ’n onafhanklike joernaal op die Internet, en word as gesamentlike onderneming deur Ligitprops 3042 BK en Media24 bedryf.