and the palms
are sticking up
for themselves
like talking sticks
Their fronds
are brooms
We are the sweepers
and we are the broom
Windswept along
the canyons
we are being
brushed clean
by forces
we are
to start again
from painful loss
beyond words
a small green
underground
is already
tentatively
beginning
its search for the light
—
Adrienne Drobnies lives in Vancouver, Canada on the territories of the Coast Salish people. Her book Salt and Ashes won an award from the Canadian Authors Association. Her poem, “Randonnées,” was shortlisted for the CBC literary award. She is grateful to breathe the air, walk along the ocean, and wander through the forests of the lands where she resides, and seeks in whatever ways she can to sustain that abundance for future generations.
