Contarinia Pirivora

The pear midge overwinters
in a silk cocoon in the soil,
Lays eggs in the blossom before it opens,
And the larvae feast on pear fruitlets,
Which turn black and rot and fall to the soil,
Where the pear midge overwinters
In a silk cocoon.
And so on we race, the midge and me,
Before work, after work,
At dawn and dusk,
I scan clusters of pearlets
for the dark mark of the midge.
Each tiny marked fruitlet that I pluck
is a point to me,
Each baby pear that rots and falls to the soil
Where the pear midge overwinters
In a silk cocoon
Is a point to Contarinia Pirivora.
We have never met.
I have never won.