Espalier
Instructions for training a pear tree flat against a wall
You start them young, before the wood can set.
Choose one straight whip. Cut it at the knee.
Wait. Two arms will come. You tie them wet
to wires along the brick, so that the tree
learns sideways, learns it has no need of air
behind it, only wall, and what you see.Each winter take the knife to what grows there
outward, toward the path, toward the light,
the reckless shoots. A tree will grow from care
Get Prose Pulse’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
into a shape it would not choose. Done right,
it fruits like this: flat, generous, and plain,
pinned to the warmth the wall stores up by night.The neighbours stop to praise it. In the rain
it holds its arms out level, very still,
as if it had been asked to, and again.Some years a shoot comes straight at you, until
it nearly reaches the gate. Its leaves are wide.
It is the most alive it’s been. You willcut it. The pears come later, side by side,
exactly where the wires said they would be,
and they are sweet. And you will say, with pride,Stand back. It looks exactly like a tree.
Conclusion
Espalier is an old and beautiful garden practice, and it is also a long negotiation with a living thing, settled every winter with a knife. The pears are real. So is the wall.
