Long stitches—the wild bees seam
their rumpled pouch
in the tree trunk’s hollow
Five-petaled berry flowers
then peach nubs
pump the days
What happens hereafter
could be perpetual learning
Compost draws flies, snakes slither
Let’s ask for lemon with tea
before honey
Before it’s hemmed
This poem first appeared in Ember Days (Codhill Press, 2024).
—
Mary Gilliland’s collections are In the Pool of the Sea’s Shoulder, Ember Days, The Devil’s Fools, and The Ruined Walled Castle Garden. Honors include a Cornell University Council on the Arts Faculty Grant and multimedia at the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Mary is a poet, ecologist, and occasional essayist in New York’s Finger Lakes Region where she has transformed a rocky acre of Six Mile Creek into a fawn-filled woodland garden. marygilliland.com
