Something Divine Let Go
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Even the poor know that richness, the fragrance of the lemon trees
We opened two halves of a miracle
Free groves spread out over miles of dirt road
and my grandmother— astonished at the sight
of the myriad trees filled with lemons large enough
to cover her palm— led us in among the fruit,
barely bitter, almost sweet. We followed her
through shadows, reaching past bouquets of leaves and blossoms,
until day yielded to evening and the limbs she bent
were bare. Carried citrus home [End Page 773]
and sliced the bright bodies, added pulp and rind to sugar, water,
black dimestore tea. We let morning work in the mixture,
have its way with what we bore and, by sunset,
welcomed grace: hands sifting creation,
small gifts filling our space.
When she died, memory mounted the table, incense filled the house.
We spoke first of bread pudding and scratch biscuits, then of how home was bittersweet—
a mistress creeping back to the back door after her husband was laid to rest,
those weary Sundays when dirt or blood marred the linens she pressed.
One told of our matriarch offering lemons after salvaging
a basket full, a bit tender but not waste, aged and softened
but still good. A store owner had let her take all
she wanted in his hurry to make way for new
and my grandmother went to comfort the downtrodden—a woman [End Page 774]
who must have resembled her, sitting near the window, shut-in
aged and ailing, watching for what wouldn’t soon come.
She soothed her, bearing fruit, said it didn’t take much
to find a reason to live. Told her just sit on the porch
in daylight, let the sun worry and spread the slices thin.
Turn the alms over in her hands and savor them, let God settle in. [End Page 775]
Remica L. Bingham, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, is author of Conversion, a collection that won the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award. Her work has also appeared in such periodicals and anthologies as New Letters, PMS, Gulf Coast, Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, and The 100 Best African American Poems. Before becoming the Writing Competency Coordinator at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, she completed the MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. A Cave Canem fellow, she has attended the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop.
