I used to know a lemon tree
Standing alone
at the backyard of the gardens
beneath where a dear friend
flourished green plums
yearly

We got to know each other
On a moment
not so many hours left
to sunset

Maybe it was after some lunch and an afternoon nap

against such rules not even once I protest

maintaining to be happy
with whatever comes to me
Yeah
whatever comes to me
to sustain
a peace appropriate to my role
in the family

Ah yes
my friends
still were there
...
Maybe a hidden cover of a candy
maybe a play of a shadow here and there
Where at other times other creatures
would play
...
A scary probability!
to wipe away for now
but not erase ‘the’-
‘Why would they hide themselves
In the corners of darkness?’

something to still discover later

while I used the time
to play secretly in a bed
where finally sleep could nurture me
always on the same set time
of the schoolless afternoons
of another summer holiday

One day after my nap or duty
and before dinner
when I was again
free
An idea struck me :

to try to climb
these very steep
perfectly squared
brick Stairs
to see
to which unknowing worlds it would lead me

from this far beneath
I always sense their bubbly trans

and the time has arrived
now
to test
that outguessed:

a beauty that
has already been preserved

into the shine
of the green plums

that gave it an existential strength

One of the many of my recording devices
For you never know in case times
If if
I would like to watch the same
as it has shaped itself
in my heart
Again

I would look then
to the shine
on specific time
and retrieve these worlds
back to me

“Oh my dear friend your greens make me laugh again and no one can hear that
but you!”

“So I will go now to these secret worlds and No
I am not afraid
It is an important task
First
To prove I am not afraid”

“Mom is still busy
And until the time I will be back
already”

I knew
The reality of these worlds
could be
dream-breakingly different than the bubbly
Belonged to the neighbors’ gardens
where I was not really supposed to be

but yeah as said
all grown ups were busy
at that time of the day
No one could see me
And so
I could peacefully talk to the not talking ones
before they could interfere us
and before I would need to reply them politely

so I went far up
and up up
and there I met this lemon tree

It was not big
Just a little bigger then me
These bizarrely straight  leaves
are almost bluer than greens
Blue-greens
although they look green
Shaped so ordinary
like a drawing of someone
who could only make a straight line
Too ordinary to be ordinary
That’s what I saw first
And that’s why I saw it maybe

I used to draw a lemon tree
kindly blown by the blue
of the wind
My visits  matching
Towards the end of the days
was set open
Preserving a secrecy
maybe about giving her a company
A presence towards which she
always remained indifferent
Maybe about
Getting to know us or me better
By slowly understanding
why she felt so gloomy
And what feeling so
meant

She was at a place where she was not supposed to be

Not knowing
Why she would never be able to grow fully
Lonely but respectful still
To the peculiarity I assigned to her

Her indifference
diffused into
That wind
defining a gloom of the day
would remain
Between us
until this day
to make me wonder
and to make
her
A bold memory