Apple time of year

Written this time last year when at the same task of pressing apples.

It appeared in the Sunday Tribune in January.

Distillation

At the first pressing of the crop
golden juice reflects October light.
Sunshine slants through half-leafed trees
heavy with apples.

A three-legged press sits squat on the table
beneath the fruited branches.
Apples fall as I release
the aromatic liquor.

A glass raised high contains the pink-tinged glow
of stained-glass window.
Sharp liquid, utterly apple, hits the palate,
summer and autumn in one.

The lifted barrel reveals spent fruit,
russet and ochre moulded
in a fat wheel of plump cheeks.
Bleeding the flesh has distilled the colours
of falling leaves.


            October 2009