Storing Apples for Winter

October 22, 1980

What we need is refrigeration But there is no room in our Old Frigidaire that in its senility Freezes lettuce but allows Ice cream to melt. Winter would suffice if it Were able to discern the niceties Between a chill that preserves And a cold tht decimates. In the end I am left With the compromise Of modern need And ancient simplicity. In a hole in the garage Safely covered with planks I store two cardboard boxes of red Rome Beauties. The round fruit rests complacently In oblong containers. Both the round of nature And the angular of man Wait in the cool dark For some distant future need.