Plums, By JOSEPH BRUCHAC III

Grandma Bruchac lies with closed eyes,

her hair as blue as the skin of a plum

that color because she washed it before

beginning dinner--the pots were bubbling

on the iron stove when she had the stroke.

In the neatly-made hospital bed

she has slept three days, a traveler

gaining strength before climbing one final hill.

The blue of European plums surrounds

her face like flower petals

or fingers stained from picking fruit.

Her face, a pale cloud, drifts further away.

She dreams of Turnava, where the boy

she’ll marry years later in this land is waiting.

He has brought her something from his uncle’s

orchard.

Her hand moves from yours to accept the gift.

From “The Boundaries of Twilight: Czech-Slovak Writing From the New World” (New Rivers Press: $14.95; 354 pp.). Joseph Bruchac’s family, on his father’s side, is from Turnava, a small town near Bratislava. On his mother’s side he is Native American. 1991 by New Rivers Press. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.