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Posts Tagged ‘legacy effect’

Sitting Beside the Meyer Lemon Tree with Sherry

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on April 28, 2025| 8 Comments »


 
 
I wasn’t thinking about the roots.
I was thinking of the intensely sweet
perfume, both heavy and bright
in the cool spring air.
I was thinking how much scent
comes from such small creamy flowers,
and how I wanted to save this floral
fragrance like a portal for remembering Sherry
in her black and white boots,
her red poppy necklace, her red spectacles,
and the conversation we had earlier
about what she called “The Legacy Effect”
in which we honor how events
and actions from long ago
still affect who we are today—
like the way she longs to find
the woman from college
who scrunched down her ankle socks
instead of folding them neatly down.
Sherry wants to write her a thank you letter
for changing the way she saw the world—
starting with her socks!
Enamored as I was with the lemon tree scent,
only later did it occur to me to thank not just
the flowers but the roots—shallow and fibrous.
How many roots are inside each of us,
spreading way beyond our own canopy?
How long would the thank you list be
if we named everyone and everything
that made us who we are? How invisible
and essential. Our perfume is their legacy.
 

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