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How can I grow
if I have no roots?

I am a limb and
I have been grafted
From an oak tree onto
A flowering peach.

I shall bear no fruit
But I am expected to bloom.
I am expected to give birth
to beautiful, golden peaches.

Having lived on a tree
with which I share no roots,
I am living by the rules
Mother Earth has set
forth for this tree.

I do not breathe or move
That I do not wonder if I
Shall wrong this tree.
I have found that in the
Spring I am expected to bloom.
I do not bloom.

I would like to be myself, to
grow straight and strong,
As my heart is pulling; but
I am expected to be filled
with golden fruit.

What will I do? I must do what
My feelings direct me to do.
I am an oak. I am not sure
what kind of oak, but I am
an oak. I can feel it in my
heart and in my soul.

I must search and find out what
kind of oak I am.
I must find out
what is to become of me.

I am expected to bear golden fruit.
I will never be able to do such a thing.
But I can become a beautiful chair
or a piano grande.

Author: Martha Josephine Wilkinson-Droll, doing life as Mary Martha Apperson (Molly)
(A beautiful adoptee friend whose first mother happens to have been a concert pianist).