Notice
Lisa Creech Bledsoe
Now that the cars are mostly shut off
and put away in the box, or left scattered
I'm noticing the old beeches, which
haven't yet put out new leaves.
I see you've come out of your hallway,
across the sticky carpet, and into
these clean weeds. You're seeing them now that
the ale is sour and there are no more late
nights with bluegrass screaming and banging
against the frought relationships (still
frought), and the stink of dirty bathrooms.
The beeches are quietly letting the young
ones leaf out in the understory, before
the adults turn the sky to shadowy green.
Watched by crows and friend to salamanders, Lisa Creech Bledsoe is a hiker, beekeeper, and writer living in the mountains of Western North Carolina. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of two full-length books of poetry, Appalachian Ground (2019), and Wolf Laundry (2020). She has new poems out or forthcoming in The Blue Mountain Review, American Writers Review, The Main Street Rag, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, and River Heron Review, among others.