Welcome Tommy Sweeny, Author of the Jacaranda

The following is an excerpt from Jacaranda, by Tommy Sweeny. I read it years ago and promised to use it in my books if ever I got published.

The story is self-explanatory, two people meeting while one is on vacation.

Jacaranda

To what angel do I yield?

That day I leaned on the trunk of that tree –you were miles away
. . . across that purple city
– I photographed some ants toting the violet blooms down the trunk
to their hiding space
and I wondered what we would have for dinner
later that evening when I returned home
and would surely have to knock, key or not, as the doors and the
keys down in your country are strange.
Do they eat those, I wondered.
Those purple buds –those tokens of the time we shared -- those symbols of your city.
They carried them on their backs like they were going to a feast.

We clung together as in a dream.
We cling together now from separate hemispheres.
Distance is discipline.

To what stern teacher do I aim
my gratitude for this lesson in fortitude?

Nothing is now nor ever has been as sweet
as the misery of continents.

(continued http://www.applauseforanger.blogspot.com/ )