Wabi-sabi  侘寂  (Japanese) the acceptance of transience and imperfection.  A beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”.

Tell me again

about the man

with the pear tree

who lost his wife

after fifty-six years of marriage

and how he had that old gnarled tree

in his backyard, and that that tree

doesn’t know when enough is enough.

That last month

he had to prop the poor thing’s branches up

with two-by-fours

it was so laden with fruit, &

how he gave you a bagful of those pears

and their scent filled the car

even with the window rolled down.

jks