Michael Quattrone 

The Old Orchard

A dump truck idles just outside the gates.
Inside, a dozer digs up apple roots.

The whining of a wrecker in reverse
seldom breaks the buzzing prayer of summer.

Point those Caterpillar treads in my direction.
Here comes another over-budget gutting.

I won’t complain about the cost or time
to raze a garden I did not design.

Though I have grazed, the land was never mine.

Michael Quattrone is the author of Rhinoceroses (New School Chapbook Award, 2006). His work has been collected in The Best American Erotic Poems (Scribner, 2008) and The Incredible Sestina Anthology (Write Bloody, 2013). Recent poems appear in The Night Heron Barks, The Best American Poetry Blog, and DMQ Review. Michael lives in Tarrytown, New York, where he reads poetry for The Westchester Review, and serves on the advisory committee of Slapering Hol Press. Read more at: michaelquattrone.com.