An Immigrant Comes to Appalachia

^E ? W*fl* ' An Immigrant Comes to Appalachia The ginkgo in the wind showers them with leaves: Ginkgo biloba, he thinks. the woman only touches her hair where gold has brushed. "Note the fruit," he says, "Yellow and foul." she sees tiny globes gathering near a root. ¦ "Native to China." On his glasses Sun discs glint. behind her eyes float fans golden as bowls of bloom. "In the fall, you see, transpiration ceases." and now her breath comes quiet as snow on bones of birds. But when in silence he offers Two curved wings of gold, she holds them, fluttering New life in the new wind. —Elizabeth Nordeen 56 ...