At dusk the ambulance came
pulling all the way up onto the lawn
like a red speed boat drifting
* * *
ashore. She was old.
She had fallen and broken her pelvis
while picking apples. She had
* * *
pruned that tree so many times
it appeared as a dark
hood. About it her white
* * *
head moved. The attendants, unloading
the gurney, argued about whose turn
it was to buy the pizza. I had been
* * *
sitting outside, reading beneath the yellow
leaves. I heard the thin
cry. She said to call, but that she