Orchards Read Free Page A

Emi
     
    so I post on Facebook
    chat with Emi
    send emails to my parents
    group messages to friends
    my legs numb from kneeling on the cushion
    as I type
    and gradually we electrons
    of that old atom
              connect
              regroup
              charge
              bond
    a little
     
    but it’s different now
    our words show restraint
    we’re polite
    not sarcastic
    considerate
    not rude
    we ask questions
    read replies
    add follow-up questions
    we are caring
    concerned
    not ourselves
    as before
    as though
    we’re dressed up
    in oversized adult clothing
     
    Lisa, nearly not a nucleus anymore
    hardly writes
    homework
she says
    a whole summer’s worth
    Becca is full of Jesus
    and theories of why
    what happened happened
    Mona jokes in half français
    writes things like
    the moose is king de nos forêts
    the moose has une grosse tête
    the male moose has un immense panache
    but where before
    we would have joked back
    and before would have gotten mileage
    from those moose
    and before those moose would have turned
    to secret slang between us
    now we can’t find
    humor in a moose with a
grosse tête
    and an immense
panache
     
    Emily hates stocking shelves
    says next year she’ll lifeguard
    Gina writes
    and writes
    poems I don’t get
    even when she uses
    words I do get
    Erin sends algebra messages
    2(day) + 2(morrow) x 3(rude + x)roommates = insanity
    solve for x
    but only Namita sends
    return equations
    I tell them about the district middle school—
    my uniform
    kids I don’t really know
    outcast girl who didn’t want my help
    classes I don’t really understand
    paper fans we flap in the way too hot classroom …
    I gripe, but only a little
    all of us complain
    only a little
     
    I think we will always complain
    only a little
    anything more
    seeming like
    drama
    after what happened
    to you
     

E ach night here
    I’m third in the bath
    after Uncle and Koichi—
    Baachan’s orders
    hot as it is in early July
    I don’t want a bath
    just a shower
    and besides
    it’s hard to think of climbing in the tub
    after Koichi and Uncle have been in
    even though they scrub clean outside the tub
    just the thought of them naked in that same water …
    well
     
    first week I shower wash
    then second week
    sore from cycling to and from school
    sore from afternoons of
mikan
thinning
    I give in
              slip in
                     soak in
    water my uncle and cousin
                            soaked in
    water Baachan, Aunt and Yurie will
                                   soak in
    heated from below
    with a fire made of wood
    pruned from
mikan
trees
    in groves my great-grandfather began
     
    this rectangular tub
    in the bathing room off the kitchen
    being the same tub
    my mother soaked in
    and must have
    thought in
              read in
                     sulked in
                            cried in
    at my age
    before she knew just how far
    her life would propel her
    from here
     
    afternoons
    in the groves
    we thin and thin
    slope after slope
    terrace after terrace
    row after row of
mikan
trees
    the dirt littered
    with small green fruits
    now and then
    I lob one at
    Koichi when
    Aunt and Uncle can’t see
    and now and then I get
    ponged on the head
    or shoulder
    or pelted on
    my wide target
    of a butt
     
    in the truck one day Koichi says
    that until I arrived
    he never thought of
mikan
    as
tobidogu
—projectile weapons
    I laugh
    and tell him
    I’m just testing
    Newton’s laws
    the force of gravity
    on horizontal velocity
     
    some days we cut grasses
    that grow fast after rains
    then spread the cuttings
    to control weeds—
    Aunt and me with scythes
    Koichi and Uncle with gas-powered
    trimmers
    that seem to sound even when
    the motors
    are off
     
    when the noise finally fades
    crows jabber
    leaves rustle
    cicadas whine
    and hawks whistle above
    us four
    perched high
    on