I might tell you
about my long walk
in the forest,
about the scent
of pine, of cedar,
of sandy loam
on the soft wooded floor.
I could bring you
there, into silence,
into the wind’s creak
and whirl on the empty
trail, into the shallow
river’s slow meander.
I would want you to see
the colors, the wild
blueberry bushes
turning rich sienna,
the ruddy bark of evergreens,
the light soil beneath
brittle brown needles,
the bright azure sky.
What I would give
to share the golden luck
of this September day,
so mild despite the wet
and stormy forecast.
But how could I
offer such beauty,
when my mind
and yours, is south,
where the weather
we did not get
stalled, made land
fall, bridges
and roads
collapse
and houses
slip with ease
into roiling rivers.
—
Ann E. Wallace is 2023-24 Poet Laureate of Jersey City, NJ and host and producer of The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants for the Native Plant Society of New Jersey. She is the author of Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul (Kelsay Books) and Counting by Sevens (Main Street Rag). Her work is online at AnnWallacePhD.com and on Instagram @annwallace409.
