White and Red Quince on Black

From “Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles)” in Tea: And Other Assorted Poems by Ruth Moose:

The quince rose thorny and sharp
beside our front porch steps, snagged
all who entered… my father’s temper
most. But mother’s patience
pruned. She tamed it, told it
wait. She knew its blooms,
orange neon against winter gray
saved our lives.

Each February
mother broke a branch to bring
indoors. Lifeless
sticks warmed in water
bloomed in that cheerless room.
Poverty lived in cold corners,
owned no rugs. The warmest
clothes were never quite warm
enough and bed quilts had to be high
and heavy to hold body heat.

But we lived
rich in hope.
In that barely
warm room,
each winter, Mother
created spring.

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Hello!

Before saying goodbye to the quinces (at least for now), I thought it would be fun to subject a few of the photos to my black background treatment, so picked eleven of each color and did just that. Despite all the little details I had to trace around — including their tiny thorny thorns — many of them came out quite good!

All the previous quince posts for 2024 are Red Quince (1 of 2), Red Quince (2 of 2), White Quince (1 of 2), and White Quince (2 of 2).

Thanks for taking a look!

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