51�Թ�

A hedge apple fallen on a car’s hood is “not the body / of a green, malignant thought, neither omen nor even / punishment for our evening’s joy.”

One day, I was walking up Main Street, caught up in my own little contest of tossing a hedge apple into the air and catching it, hoping to count to two hundred catches without dropping.

Slowly, thoughtfully, I took up catching the hedge apple again, One, two, three..., but I wasn’t really paying attention to my counting anymore.

Paulie held a large hedge apple in his hand.

He cradled the hedge apple gently in his hands.